The Rain Must Fall
by QuantumSheep
Summary: SG-1 gets a new team member, only to be sent on a mission that faces them against an enemy that may know more about them than they think, lead by a man with a hidden agenda. Final chapter up. Set late season two.
1. A Morning Briefing

**Chapter One: Briefing**

The temperature within Stargate Command was at a fairly comfortable and cool twenty-five degrees Celsius. The SGC itself occupied the lower half of the Cheyenne Mountain complex, positioned beneath the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) complex while taking up sublevels thirteen down to twenty-eight.

It was the dawn of a new day at the SGC and probably yet another fairly routine one at that. The personnel were changing shifts whilst the daily system checks and so forth were being carried out. By now most personnel had stopped off at the cafeteria for breakfast and had begun their daily work, whatever that might have been.

It was also a Monday, perhaps Colonel Jack O'Neill's least favourite day. After a weekend of more or less doing nothing, he was faced with a week which would probably include a few trips through the stargate and back again, as this was part of the job. He was in charge of SG-1, the flagship team of the entire Earth-based stargate operations. If SG-1 looked bad then so would everybody else involved with Stargate Command so it was also in his best interests to do a fairly good job of carrying out the missions he and the rest of the team were given.

It had only been recently that he and the rest of SG-1 had had the "luck", if someone could call it that, to travel back in time (purely by accident, of course) to the year 1969. That had been a bit of a surprise since he had always figured that time travel was a bit more complicated than going through the stargate when a solar flare crossed in the path of the portal, but then again it seemed all sorts of things he had once figured were beyond possible had indeed been proven quite the opposite. He remembered that time when Daniel had gone missing on P3R-233 only to return alter wounded and saying he had travelled to some sort of alternate reality.

Jack guessed that if travelling to alternate realities was possible then time travel was also possible. Regardless, he hoped he wouldn't have to be put through more of that confusing time travel business and that his missions would remain solely within the present. Of course, that seemed unlikely knowing his luck.

This morning he had woken up feeling a little under the weather, able to feel that his nose was blocked by a fair amount of mucus. He could only guess he had received some sort of head-cold and as a result had packed extra tissues into his pockets, occasionally having to blow his nose whenever it began to run. He had visited the infirmary to pick up some antibiotics but they didn't seem to be relieving his condition too well.

According to what information he had gathered about today the General would be briefing them on where they would be headed next through the stargate probably giving them a few choices as to where to go. It seemed that some of the planets they went to were considerably more hazardous than others and today Jack wasn't in much of a mood to get put through more life-threatening situations. He had a cold and the last thing he needed was to get shot at. He supposed he could take a break from all of that dangerous stuff for a week or two, seeing as they seemed to have the Goa'uld at bay for a while. Well, he thought they did. There hadn't been that much trouble with them since they sent the dead Apophis back through the gate to that evil Sokar guy. That seemed to have bought them some time until the next move against them from the Goa'uld.

Jack was seated in his usual spot at the long wooden table in the briefing room, occasionally trying to sniff up the snot that threatened to drip out of his nose. He sneezed haphazardly, spraying the table in front of him with spittle and mucus.

"You alright, Colonel?"

Jack looked up whilst wiping his nose with a tissue he had removed from his pocket. He saw that the General was looking at him with some concern, probably worried that Jack wouldn't be fit enough to go on whatever mission he had planned next for them.

Of course, that wouldn't be the case. It was a cold after all and a few sneezes wouldn't impede his combat skills. At least, he thought so.

"I'm fine," Jack said, realizing that everyone in the room was looking at him. He shook his head, trying to get across the fact that there was nothing really wrong with him. "It's just a cold…"

All four members of SG-1 were seated at different points of the table within the briefing room with General George Hammond standing by the star map on the window which also looked in on his office. The General was mostly bald and from Texas, a man who seemed to carry an air of stern but respectable authority wherever he went. Dr. Daniel Jackson was seated on Jack's right, hands at the set of reports on the table in front of him. Jack had copies of them as well, as so did Carter and Teal'c. Hammond had handed them out to each of them although Jack was yet to flick through his copy, too busy trying to blow what was stuck up his nose out into a tissue.

_I hate having a cold…_

"I hope it gets better, for your sake Colonel," Hammond replied, "since where I'm planning on sending you is damn cold according to our preliminary reconnaissance reports."

_That's great…_

Jack looked down at the report on the table in front of him. The SGC logo was printed on the front while underneath the words "TOP SECRET—LEVEL FOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE PERSONNEL EYES ONLY" were underneath. Inside were several papers, a few colour photographs and a map of what looked to be a mountainous area. A few points on the map were marked in red, labelled with such titles as "E-SIG 1". Jack could only guess at their meaning although he did spot the piece of information which explained what these documents were actually about: they were to do with some planet designated "P5H-734" and that these documents compiled information gathered from a survey team sent to the planet last week.

Jack looked up, meeting eyes with Carter who was seated across from him. She looked at bemused as he was about why they were going here and what the marked regions on the map represented, seeing as mission details were surprisingly lacking from the documents.

Hammond cleared his throat loud enough to get the team's attention and started talking when he was satisfied that they were listening to him. He pointed to a spot on the star map printed on the glass screen at the end of the room, tapping one circle in particular.

"It's been designated 'P5H-734' and is located in a remote region of the galaxy. We discovered its stargate coordinates using information from the Abydos cartouche, which means the Goa'uld know of its existence." Hammond took his hand away from the star map (or "star chart", depending on who you were talking to) and looked towards the team, his face creased with concern.

"Usually we wouldn't bother with such an out of the way place, perhaps sending no more than a survey team there…"

"And I figure all these papers here are what the survey team gathered, sir?" Daniel asked, glancing down at the map within his copy of the documents. Hammond nodded, looking a little too serious. Jack usually associated Hammond's more serious mood with bad news, seeing as the General always seemed to deliver some when he was looking this serious. The others seemed to sense it too, although Teal'c was the one to mention it.

"Is there something wrong, General Hammond?"

Hammond nodded and Jack couldn't help but feel a little curious. The lack of mission details in the reports might be attributed to the fact that some rather serious matter had come up to do with this planet, P5H-734. The General was going to tell them what they had to do and Jack had the feeling it would probably include getting shot at when they went there.

"Let me guess: the survey team went missing?" Jack was only guessing, saying the first thing that came to his mind. Unsurprisingly the General nodded his head again which meant that Jack was right. He wasn't sure whether that was something to celebrate or not and so kept quiet, allowing the General to resume talking.

"To be more exact, Colonel, _SG-8_ has gone missing," Hammond continued, stepping away from the star chart and towards the head of the conference table, "they were the survey team. They managed to gather all the information you see on those reports before simply failing to return back at the scheduled time. Another forty-eight hours went by and that's when I officially reported them as 'missing in action'."

Jack knew all too well that rescue missions often ended badly. Everyone in SG-8 could be dead for all they knew and it seemed that Hammond had taken this fact into account, keeping that serious expression on his face and simply shaking his head as he delivered the news.

Jack sensed that the others were thinking the same thing, although as usual Teal'c was the hardest to read. His neutral expression hadn't changed and only one eyebrow had risen slightly, indicating curiosity. Jack was also curious, more towards the facts of SG-8's disappearance than anything else.

"What do you think happened?" Carter was the one to ask.

"Nobody has any idea about what happened to SG-8," Hammond replied, "they checked in about six hours before their scheduled return time, mentioning how they were going to investigate a strange set of energy signatures coming from a mountain range…"

"Energy signatures?" Jack looked at the map, realizing that this was what was meant by the marked regions and the labels "E-SIG 1" and so forth. Hammond looked a little irritated at the Colonel's interruption but simply resumed talking, having been close to explaining that anyway.

"Yes, Colonel, energy signatures," Hammond said, "they reported about six in total, three in the rainforest north from the stargate and three in a mountain range several miles from the rainforest. One of them in particular seemed fairly strong and is marked on the maps as 'E-SIG MAIN'."

Jack looked down at the map and noticed this label and the region it represented with a red circle. According to the map it was smack bang in the middle of a mountain, probably the tallest of the bunch. Usually such energy signatures meant some sort of power source or alien technology. Whether that was a good or bad thing was impossible to tell.

"So now they're officially missing," Hammond said, seeming to finish delivering the bad news. He paused for a moment, allowing the team to dwell over the possibilities of what could be awaiting them on the planet and what could have happened to SG-8.

Jack had the feeling that maybe whatever had happened to SG-8 would happen to him and the rest of SG-1. It was up to them to ensure they wouldn't meet the same fate, but whatever had swallowed up SG-8 on that planet was probably capable of swallowing SG-1 up as well. This thought did little to comfort his worries about the mission.

"Is anyone else coming with us?" Carter asked, "such as another team…?"

Hammond took a moment took a moment to think about this, his face lighting up slightly. Jack was surprised; perhaps there was something to look forward to after all. Help maybe? It would be most welcome if they were going to a potentially hostile world.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, you will be receiving some help," Hammond said, although there seemed to be some new doubt in his voice. This most likely meant he wasn't too sure of how helpful this "help" might be. Jack was simply curious to find out, seeing as Hammond had paused as if to add dramatic tension.

_All we need now is a drum roll…_

Another SG team would be a welcome addition to his mission, providing that sense of security one received when they knew they weren't the only ones in danger. If P5H-734 was a dangerous world than two teams was better than one, although it occurred to Jack just how many were currently off-world. SG-2 was somewhere, so was SG-6, SG-7 and SG-9. Jack was expecting SG-3, seeing as they were the next best thing when it came to the teams.

SG-3 was a team consisting of marines lead by Colonel Makepeace and had assisted SG-1 in the past. SG-3 was more oriented towards combat mission and it was quite possible that there would be some combat during this upcoming mission, so any help in that field would be welcome. However, Jack was surprised to hear what the Colonel had to say when he revealed what this assistance on the mission would be.

"I'm afraid it's not quite a whole team," Hammond said, taking note of the surprised and uncertain glances he received. Teal'c simply raised an eyebrow, being the least concerned of the group.

"What is it then?" Jack asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, "a tank? No, wait…a helicopter. No, actually, I've always wanted to ride in a tank…"

Hammond tried his best to ignore the comment and went on with his announcement. Jack couldn't work out what it could possibly be, seeing as the only thing he could think of that could be in anyway practical for the mission was another SG team.

"Usually I wouldn't allow this, seeing as I'm a firm believer in the four-person teams that operate from this base," Hammond said, furthering the doubts in the minds of SG-1's team members, "but my hands are tied…"  
"With all due respect sir, you're stalling," Jack said, getting fed up with all this waiting around. Hammond simply shot him a stern look, one that told the Colonel to be quiet so that the General could get on with it.

"She's going to be a temporary addition, of course," Hammond said, "but I'm being made to give her a chance to work with SG-1…"

Jack was confused by this statement, surprised that a man like Hammond would let himself be forced into doing something like this. Jack was also curious by the "she" statement and the fact that whoever this person was, she was going to be a "temporary addition". Temporary addition to what?

"Her father's an Air Force General and he's got a lot of influence and the security clearance to go with it," Hammond said, unable to help but sound a little irritated by the fact, "he's requested that his daughter join the SGC and become a leader of one of the teams. However, he's also made the rather large request of having her put in SG-1 for a few weeks, apparently just to see how she does…"

Jack was definitely confused now. He didn't like the sound of what seemed like a new team member but could see that Hammond was being made to do it. Hammond himself didn't look too bothered but did seem a little irritated at the fact that he could do little to facilitate this other General's requests. From what Jack could gather it seemed that some arrogant Air Force General had kissed enough asses to have his daughter made a member of an SG team.

Jack exchanged looks with Carter again. She didn't look annoyed at the news, probably knowing that she couldn't exactly complain. If Hammond had been powerless to stop this new development than what could a Captain like Carter possibly do? That was when Jack realized his own powerlessness and so was about to complain, only to end up sneezing all over the reports in front of him.

Wiping his nose with a tissue he looked over at Teal'c and then to Daniel. Teal'c was, as usual, keeping his straight face while Daniel didn't seem at all bothered. Jack could tell he was the only one who was taking this personally.

A new team member? What kind of a joke was that? He had always thought that most SG teams would be restricted to four members, no less and no more. He had gotten used to his team and could trust each and every one of them with his life and they could trust him in turn. A new member would ultimately disrupt this vital team balance, a fact that Jack was familiar with from his days in the Special Forces. Most likely this new girl would be a rookie, far from the high standard that was expected with each SG team.

"Hang on a second, sir," Jack said, finally deciding to voice his complaints, "are you saying some high-up Air Force General had decided to put his little girl into SG-1?"

Hammond nodded, agreeing entirely. Jack knew he could probably do little to change it but he was still annoyed about it. He was also annoyed at the fact that neither Carter, Daniel nor Teal'c seemed to be as annoyed as he was.

"Do I sense some apprehension in you, Colonel?" Carter asked, a little smug.

"Of course you do!" Jack exclaimed, his voice a little croaky from the cold he had, "I don't like this! I don't like this mission, I don't like SG-8's disappearance and I really don't like the idea of a new person in the team. It'll just screw everybody up, including me." Jack lowered his voice, realizing he was yelling. Hammond was looking at him with that stare that told him to be quiet or risk insubordination.

"I don't like it too much either Colonel, but it's just one of those things you're going to have to live with," Hammond said, losing the stare and returning to his usual stern demeanour, "besides, what could be so bad about it? Her service records are excellent and she's won a few medals…"

"Uh, sir…what's her name?" Daniel asked.

Hammond paused for a moment, ceasing what sounded like an overblown description of this woman's career record and went on to answer Daniel's question.

"She's the daughter of General John Raine," Hammond replied, "her name's Katelyn. She's a First Lieutenant, although I'm supposed to promote her to Captain once she's done a few missions with you."

"What? Her dad wants her promoted as well?" Jack couldn't believe the nerve this General Raine guy had, first bossing around Hammond and now asking him to give his daughter a promotion. All in all, he sounded like the type of person Jack disliked.

"Yes, he does Colonel," Hammond said, "besides; I for one don't see what harm including her on this mission with you will do. I was suitably impressed with her service record and I think she would make an able addition to your team…"

"Sir, I don't like this," Jack said rather bluntly, "sure, you can go ahead and give her a team to lead. I just don't like the idea of having her join up with us, even if it is temporary…"

"Colonel, you have to understand that I simply can't deny her father's requests just because you don't like the idea of an extra addition to your team," Hammond said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. He seemed to be wearing thin of Jack's complaints. The Colonel realized this and decided to keep a bit quieter when it came to his dislike of this new development, although it wouldn't stop him from making sure Lieutenant Raine had a hard time in SG-1.

Jack had never liked unexpected developments such as this and reacted in the only way he could towards them: apprehension. He was going to try his best to follow the General's advice and put up with Lieutenant Katelyn Raine but part of his mind was telling him that she didn't deserve an easy time in the team. He was expecting a sort of less capable military woman when he did finally meet her, although he knew these female military types could be quite fiery. Take Carter for example, she was fairly competent with her line of work but then again she was more of a scientist than a soldier.

All in all, Jack had no idea what to expect when this Lieutenant finally showed up. Today, it seemed, had brought much unexpected news. Not only did he have to contend with a possibly dangerous mission but he also had to pretend to enjoy having a new team member.

"I don't see anything wrong with the extra help," Daniel said, further adding to Jack's overall bad mood.

"Thanks for the support, Daniel," Jack said bluntly. He began to feel another sneeze coming on but the feeling faded, instead his nose began to run again.

"You're just in a bad mood because you have a cold," Daniel said, turning to look at the Colonel, "and you're probably going to give that cold to the rest of us anyway. Have you tried antibiotics?"

"Yes, just after I realized my nose was clogged with snot," Jack said, "and the drugs aren't working."

Daniel thought about this for a moment, simply shrugging.

"You'll get better soon enough, I guess," he said, "and maybe then you'll be in a better mood."

The room fell into a brief silence which was soon broken when Hammond spoke again.

"Well, now that the matter's settled I guess all we have to do now is wait for her arrival," Hammond said, "she was meant to be here an hour ago but her flight was delayed."  
"How come you didn't tell us about this earlier?" Jack asked, finding this news to be on remarkably short notice. Hammond didn't reply straight away, he was busy gathering up some papers from his part of the table and forming them into a neat pile.

"I only found out myself yesterday," Hammond said finally, sliding the pile of papers and reports over to the side.

"And you told us today?" Jack raised an eyebrow, "isn't that a bit…you know, late?"

"I found out last night to be more exact, when you were all in bed and asleep," Hammond said, some irritation creeping into his voice, "why? Would you prefer I wake you up next time?"

Jack shook his head. He didn't like getting woken up for anything but then again he didn't like surprises such as this. He had had plenty of surprises in the past and many of them had been bad ones. That was when he sneezed again, this time doing it into the sleeve of his green BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) and leaving a small wet patch.

"Sir, when are we leaving for P5H-734?" Carter asked, changing the subject to a more pressing issue. Hammond looked at her and took a moment to remember the date.

"You'll be leaving later tonight," Hammond said, "I would have preferred it to be sooner but there's been a lot going on around the base recently, with several SG teams off-world and repairs taking place after that incursion by the Reetou."

Jack remembered the Reetou incursion all too well, seeing as it had been only a couple of weeks ago. The Reetou were a race of giant intelligent bugs that existed slightly out of phase of this reality and thus were invisible, unless exposed with a TER (Transphase Eradication Rod). That had been quite a fiasco, with five of the bugs infiltrating the base and ending up blowing holes in a few of the base's personnel. Life in the SGC wasn't as safe as people preferred to think.

"So, that means we have about a day to get to know this new girl before she comes with us to P5H-734?" Jack asked, "That doesn't sound like a long time to get to know someone who might end up watching your back in a fight…"

"Yes, Colonel, it means you have a day to get to know her," Hammond said, "I expect you spend it doing just that."

Jack nodded. This whole situation wasn't much to his liking but he had tried complaining about it, only to annoy the General. Part of him was curious as to what this new girl looked like and how well she was in a fight. Perhaps she was good looking, although this was beside the point. She would upset the delicate team balance and the last thing Jack needed was someone he barely knew looking out for him when the bullets (or energy blasts) started flying.

_Hopefully she doesn't show up._


	2. Lieutenant Raine

**Location: **Outside of Cheyenne Mountain

The car with the grey paint scheme pulled up at the security checkpoint and guardhouse located on the road a short distance from the entrance of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Inside was an official Air Force driver in uniform and he winded down his side's window as an armed guard approached.

Sitting in the back seat of the car was First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine. She was about thirty-two years old and had light brown hair which was tied into a neat but narrow ponytail. Her eyes were only just darker than her hair and contained a young, vibrant fire that gave away her volatile temper and determined persona. She was the type who preferred to get the job done in whatever way possible, leading many to tag her as "ruthless" and "unstable". She knew what most fellow soldiers thought of her but she didn't care, knowing full well that her determination to get a mission carried out properly had won her medals and thus effectively silenced her critics.

Right now though she was tired, having spent the last few hours on a plane that had crossed from side of the United States to the other. Her muscles were tired from having spent most of the previous night up and reading, although she had been reading with good reason. If she was going to spend the rest of her military career in the SGC she would have to know what was going on, hence the reason she had been up all of last night reading mission reports and other associated documents. Such reading could get dull but she had managed to get through most of the few hundred papers that had been sent to her.

Of course, she wasn't looking forward to her first mission, whatever that would be. Her father, a rather important Air Force General, had made sure to get her a position in one of the SG teams that operated from within the mountain complex. He had arranged for her to become a temporary member of SG-1, a move which she felt wasn't necessary but it seemed that this was the best her father could get her. The person in charge of the complex would have to see her performance while operating with an existing team before she was given her own team to take charge of and travel to distant worlds with.

She sat back in the seat, watching from her side's window as the guard approached the driver's window and spoke to the driver. She figured that with security measures at an all time high in a place like this that she would be here for about half an hour just waiting for clearance to get inside. It seemed she was wrong though, they had obviously organized things in such a way that the guard only needed to glance at the driver's clearance and take a look into the backseat before letting them through past the gate.

It hadn't been her choice to become part of this stargate program, in fact it had been entirely her father's decision. Her father, being a big name General, had influence in many branches of the military and could usually get what he wanted. So, it seemed that when he found out about a certain military exercise involving portals and fighting alien races her father had decided that to further his own daughter's military career it would be best for her to become part of this branch of the military. Katelyn hadn't found out about her move here until last week and had at first protested, although her father would hear none of it. He had made the arrangements to have her transferred here and she was going to do it, no questions asked.

As a result she had packed up her bags and left behind the Special Forces team she had been part of for most of her years as a soldier. Now she was going to be made to live in some sort of drab underground military base with people she didn't know. This wasn't exactly her idea of furthering her military career but she had found it impossible to argue against her father and so had resigned herself to whatever fate awaited her in the stargate program.

This had been before the reports and documents had been sent to her via a secure army courier. At first she had been quite reluctant to waste away her time reading such dull looking documents but when she had finally brought herself to open the first report she had been almost instantly amazed by the information contained inside. At first she couldn't believe such outlandish stories but the more she read the more it seemed true, especially since these files and reports were official and classified military documents.

She had started with the information about the very first mission through the Stargate, when a team had been sent through to a planet called Abydos. This mission had occurred a few years ago and then it seemed that the people in charge of the operation had thought that there was only one other stargate, and that was on Abydos.

She had found that one mission to be hard to believe but when she had started on the rest of the reports she had gradually began to see that all of the things mentioned in them made sense, in a way. They all seemed to intertwine, especially when it came to the missions involving the alien parasites called the Goa'uld. She didn't like the sound of alien snakes taking over human bodies but then again she realized she might end up fighting them if she was going to be a regular traveller through the stargate.

The whole idea of traversing great distances through portals was a bit hard to grasp but she figured she would get used to it once she had worked here for a while. Most missions through the stargate weren't too dangerous according to reports, unless the Goa'uld were encountered. When an SG team ran into them it was always trouble.

However, she wasn't looking forward to being put as more or less an "extra" onto SG-1 for her first few missions. She had gotten used to working with her squad in the Special Forces and had gotten to know each and every member. She always disliked being transferred for whatever reason and this time would be no different, albeit with added pressure to do well since she would be working with the flagship team of the stargate program.

It was well known amongst the people involved that if SG-1's actions reflected upon the stargate program as a whole. If they did badly they made the stargate program look bad in turn although so far SG-1 had avoided this. There had been a time when Senator Kinsey had decided to shut it down but this idea had been scrapped with the arrival of two Goa'uld mother-ships in orbit over Earth. The only reason the world was enslaved by the Goa'uld by now was because of SG-1, having gotten on board one of the ships and destroying both.

Katelyn couldn't help but feel some pressure about going into this team. She knew that her arrival would shake up the team balance seeing as all four members would be close friends. They probably weren't looking too forward to her inclusion in their group and probably knew it was all because of her father that she was even being made a part of their team. To them she was just another military girl whose daddy had made sure she got into a good line of military work.

_They probably won't like me too much,_ she thought. It was a definite possibility and she had a feeling which members of the team would be the most profoundly affected by her inclusion.

She had taken the time to read up on each of the four team members and knew a bit about each of them as a result. She had the feeling that Colonel Jack O'Neill would be the least welcoming but she would make sure that their opinions of her changed for the better.

She was determined to make a lasting impact on the team in a good manner. If she was going to be part of the flagship team of the entire stargate program then she would have to do well and look good at the same time. If she did well she would get her own team and a nice promotion to Captain to top things off and she would never say no to a promotion.

Katelyn sat back in her seat as the driver directed the car through the tunnel entrance of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Inside lights lined the ceiling and soldiers milled past, as well as some workers and a few cargo trucks that were dispatching crates to and from the base. The driver pulled the car to a halt in an parking space along with several other civilian vehicles and turned his head, obviously going on to speak.

"Well, we're here Lieutenant," he said, "all you have to do is head for the security checkpoint by the elevator and they'll clear you to enter the base."

Katelyn nodded, assuming that this was where she was meant to disembark from the car. She grabbed the single but large green bag that she had packed her essentials in and pushed open her side's door. She nodded to the driver, gave him a simple "thank you" for the ride and stepped out into the cool air of the tunnel.

Behind her a little further down the tunnel was the entrance/exit, sunlight streaming in from outside. Stacks of crates lined one side of the tunnel while a few closed garage doors were set into the wall across from her. Workers in standard green and grey uniforms off-loaded cargo trucks, Katelyn guessing that the cargo off-loaded was supplies such as food and equipment. A base such as this would probably have the stores to become self-sufficient in an emergency but in a normal state would receive regular imports from the outside world.

Katelyn took a moment to figure out where the elevator the driver had mentioned was, noticing several signs on the walls pointing out what was in each direction. Right now she was in the area known as "Shipping and Receiving" and that one of the main elevators was further down the tunnel. Slinging her bag over one shoulder she sighed and started walking.

She felt almost like a stranger in a place like this. This feeling of being an outsider would probably increase when she was down in the lower levels where the stargate program operated from. Regardless she pressed on, unsure of whether or not she should actually go through with becoming a part of this base and its personnel. It felt strange to be moving to another place after having spent a number of years working from the same base in the same squad. She hated changes like this. They never went down well with her.

She found the elevator a little further down the tunnel as the signs had said. This appeared to be the main elevator although before it was a metal fence and a single booth, a few guards seated inside while a pair stood by the gate set within the fence. Even as she approached she could tell that their job of guarding the main elevator wasn't the most exciting, all of this from judging their bored expressions and the fact that the four guys in the booth were seated around a table and playing cards.

To add to the drab mood the interior of the tunnel was set in a darg grey/green paintjob in order to match the military colour scheme. Any other colours seemed rare, although such was typical of a heavy duty military installation such as this. For all the millions that were spent n constructing top secret bases, it seems that none of the people in charge were willing to arrange for a better looking interior design. Dull greys and greens were all around, definitely the type of colours one got fed up with after a while.

Katelyn approached the guards at the gate, receiving glances from the four in the guard booth. She could tell that these guys hadn't seen a young attractive woman such as her for a while and the two standing guard at the gate seemed unsure of how to react to her arrival. Katelyn decided to guide the situation along by herself, seeing as these two young male guards were at a loss for words.

"My name's Katelyn Raine," she said simply, stopping either of the two guards from getting a word in, "I'm a Lieutenant transferring down to Area 52. I should be expected."

Area 52 was the unofficial term used to describe the activities that took place on sublevels thirteen to twenty-eight. It was also the term used to describe the SGC to those who weren't fully aware of the facility's true purpose, such as these two guards here. One of them, a young Corporal, nodded when he worked out what she was talking about. Composing himself he saluted and finally managed to speak.

"I need to see some identification," he said, "and I'll have to check your bag for any contraband items." Katelyn frowned and in response the guard said, "It's all just protocol, ma'am."

Katelyn nodded. She was aware of the many rigid protocols bases such as this would have, handing over her bag to the guard. She removed her ID card from her trouser pocket and he took that as well, taking these items into the guard booth. Katelyn watched as the guard set her bag down on a small table in the corner of the booth while he picked up a phone and dialled an in-base number, obviously in order to clear her for entry into the base.

Katelyn approached the open window in the guard booth, watching as the guard on the phone nodded and spoke into it briefly before hanging up. He seemed satisfied with the result and handed the Lieutenant back her ID card. She pocketed it and watched as the guard unzipped her bag and began to remove each item in turn and lay them out on the table. These items included a few changes of clothes, a small diary that she had barely found the time to write in, a copy of _The War of the Worlds_ by HG Wells and a small but fairly heavy silver metal case. The guard, curious by this item, found the latch on its side and flipped it open.

Katelyn had been expecting this sort of bag search and wasn't surprised by the guard's reaction to what was inside. Of course, she was sure they could work something out seeing as the item inside was a prized item of hers.

"I'm afraid this is going to have to be cleared for approval for entry into Area 52, ma'am," the guard said, turning the opened case around in order to show her what was inside. She already knew the item well enough and had figured that if she was going to be fighting aliens she might as well bring it.

The item inside was a large but sleek looking handgun with a silver chrome finish and pearl-handle. It wasn't actually hers, rather it had been her grandfather's and he had used it during the Second World War. He had given it to her father before he had died and her father, seeing no use for it, had kept it hidden away until Katelyn had joined the military and received it as a birthday present. The Lieutenant had always been a bit of a gun fanatic which had been one reason why she had joined up as soon as she had been old enough, having settled on becoming a squad leader.

"Will I get it back anytime soon?" She asked, sceptical. Bringing in uncleared firearms into a military base could mean a rather long wait for it to be approved and she was quite eager to take the pistol out on the firing range, wherever that firing range was located. She was even more eager to take it with her on a mission although chances were they wouldn't let her, instead sticking her with a standard-issue sidearm such as the Beretta 92F.

The pistol was an old fashioned Colt, obsolete by today's standards and more of a collector's item. She had only ever spent one occasion on a firing range with it, finding it to have rather powerful recoil but balancing this out with reliability.

"Ah…I don't know, ma'am," the guard said, "probably a few days. Why?"

"No reason," Katelyn replied. The expensive collector's pistol could wait, she guessed. Looking down at the watch on her left wrist she could see that she was running at least an hour and a half late, enough of an indication to her to actually pick up the pace a little.

"Can I go through?" She asked. The guard closed the handgun's case and placed it on the table, packing away the others items into her bag and handing it back to her.

"Actually, ma'am, you have to wait for the personal escort they're sending up," the guard replied, "he should be here at any moment…"

_Personal escort? Sounds special._  
Katelyn took her bag and slung it around her shoulder, hearing the elevator door slide open as she did so. Feeling a little disheartened at the loss of the prized family heirloom pistol, she turned to look towards the elevator while half-expecting a General to walk out. Instead, she watched as an African-American man with close cropped dark hair and who was dressed in a guard's uniform left the elevator. He stopped by the gate and slid a keycard through the electronic lock in it, pushing open the gate once the light on the lock blinked green. He greeted the Lieutenant with a fairly standard looking smile, holding out a hand in greeting which Katelyn shook.

"You must by Lieutenant Raine," the man said, "I'm Captain Johnson and I'm in charge of the guards here. I'm going to escort you to your quarters here in the base." He paused, waiting for Katelyn to say something. She wasn't sure what to say and so remained silent.

"Well, I can see you're excited to be here Lieutenant," Johnson said with slight sarcasm, "I know I was when I found out I was being transferred here. He held the gate open for her, allowing her to walk through. Katelyn could tell that he was simply putting on a big act, probably having been made to be her personal escort by whoever was in charge of him.

Katelyn followed him into the elevator, the door closing behind her once she had entered. Inside the air was cool, as it seemed to be all over the base. Captain Johnson stood looked towards her, keeping on his friendly act as he pressed a button on the elevator's keypad. It started on down, travelling into the deepest and most secretive reaches of the base. Katelyn wondered just how deep it could get.

"I'll be showing you to your quarters, Lieutenant," Johnson said, breaking the silence inside the elevator, "as well as that; the General would like to meet you. He's with SG-1 in the briefing room now and they've been expecting you're arrival…"

"Just take me to my quarters so I can get settled in," Katelyn said, interrupting the Captain mid-sentence. He fell silent and nodded, respecting the Lieutenant's wishes seeing as it was his job to do so for all new arrivals. Katelyn doubted they received many transfers to the SGC though; the stargate program was only about two years old while discounting the very first mission to Abydos. Things only really started when Apophis lead an unexpected incursion through the base's stargate early last year, at a time when it was thought that the only functioning stargate was on Abydos. From then on the stargate program had been formed and the people involved had been fighting the Goa'uld ever since, as well as encountering other hostile races and some allies.

Katelyn had the feeling that she could leave meeting SG-1 until last. She wasn't looking forward to it to say the least, feeling an unfamiliar nervousness and fluttering in her stomach that she hadn't felt for a very long time. She knew she shouldn't be so nervous and instead rather excited to be here, knowing that she would become part of Earth's first line of defence against hostile alien races. Unfortunately she wasn't too excited, although the prospect of promotion was something she wouldn't say no to.

The elevator stopped, the door sliding open and revealing a dark grey corridor lined with green and white lights. A few uniformed men wandered past the elevator but otherwise this particular corridor was empty. To the left and right of the elevator were further corridors, these ones set with doors at certain intervals while a lone guard sat at a desk in the far corner, posted by an open blast door. More uniformed personnel were wandering around, going about their own business and seemingly oblivious to Katelyn's arrival.

The Lieutenant didn't care too much about what they were doing, instead stepping out of the elevator behind Captain Johnson. On the wall ahead was the number '25' printed in large letters, an indication that she was on sublevel twenty-five of the mountain complex. That would mean that they were three levels above where the stargate was meant to be located which meant that they were close to the hub of the operations that went on within this facility.

"Follow me, Lieutenant," Captain Johnson said, turning right out of the elevator and starting at a brisk pace down the corridor. Katelyn had no other choice but to follow the Captain.

Captain Johnson nodded to the guard seated at the desk and he saluted before returning to the paperwork he had laid out in front of him. Katelyn stepped up just behind the fast walking Captain, looking around the base as she went. She was curious to see where all the more interesting stuff occurred and was also rather curious to actually see this "stargate", the very device that the SGC had been formed to operate in the first place. She had seen pictures of course although she did find it hard to believe that an interplanetary portal could be formed within a two-storey high ore ring.

The pair passed several closed blue doors, Katelyn able to make out bunks and other homely items through the small windows set into these doors. It was obvious they were living quarters and this was enough to tell Katelyn that she was nearing her own.

Captain Johnson halted at one of the doors further down the corridor, reaching into a pocket in his uniform's shirt. From it he removed a set of two identical keys, handing them to Katelyn. She glanced down at them, figuring they had something to do with her accommodations.

"That's the key to your new quarters and a spare, just in case you lose one," Johnson said, pushing open the door for her. He gestured to her to head on inside and she did so with her expectations set suitably low. She wasn't surprised by the dreary interior of her new accommodations, being met with a pair of bunk beds and a pair of desks, one set in each corner of the room. A door was to one side, leading into an en suite bathroom which housed a toilet and a sink with a mirror. Showers, she guessed, were separate facilities.

"You can do it up to your liking," Johnson said with his usual smile. Katelyn nodded, setting her bag down on the bunk closest to her. She hadn't been expecting much, knowing full well that the military tended to cut spending on accommodations for the personnel of a military base. The basics were enough, apparently.

"The General's waiting for you up in the briefing room," Johnson said, "that's down on sublevel 27. As well as that, your base key-cards and identification badges will be sent down to your quarters a later on."

"What if I need to get through a locked door before then?" Katelyn asked, raising an eyebrow.

Johnson shrugged.

"You won't need to unless the base is put on lockdown," he explained, "and that happens only in emergencies."

"Right…" Katelyn could see that live here would get interesting. She had the feeling that emergency situations happened an awful lot judging from the small amount of reports she had read. So far the base had been attacked by the Goa'uld on more than one occasion, had almost been destroyed by a black hole via the stargate and had been infiltrated by invisible alien bugs. There were probably more instances of alien attack or near destruction of the entire base but she was sure she had the more important events well memorized.

"So, if you need anything all you have to do is just call up on the inter-base intercom system," Johnson said, gesturing to the grey intercom set into the wall by the door, "they'll send someone down to help you out."

Katelyn nodded. A base like this would need an efficient way of communicating to someone else in another section so an intercom system did seem like the best choice in this regard. However, she was curious about the Captain's role here.

"If you don't mind me asking," Katelyn said, noticing as Johnson raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "what do you do here?"  
Johnson took a moment to answer.

"I'm in SG-5," he replied, "I'm the team's second-in-command to Colonel Kessler. Why?"  
Katelyn shrugged.

"Just curious," she answered. Johnson nodded, understanding the newcomer's curiosity, and turned around to leave after a quick farewell. The door closed shut behind him, leaving Katelyn alone in the room.

She sat herself down on the nearest bunk, thinking over what she would possibly end up doing. If she was indeed going to go to other planets that simply left her with too many possibilities to contemplate. She wasn't looking forward to encountering the Goa'uld or some equally hostile race, nor was she looking forward to meeting the four people she would be working with. Only her curiosity towards this whole stargate business kept her from leaving.

Her father had always noted her occasionally cynical, doubtful nature but he had commended her determination to get whatever job she was doing done. This time around she was determined to get her stint with SG-1 over and done with although part of her was telling her that maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

_Yeah right,_ she thought with sarcasm as she started to unpack her bag. She still had the feeling that she would be an unwelcome addition to the team and would be grateful once her time with SG-1 was over.

It was impossible to tell this base apart from any other. Someone would have to get right down to sublevel twenty-eight to actually learn why there was so much activity here, a neat little trick the military had set up to make sure the stargate remained a secret. No visitor who didn't know about it would be able to find out unless they saw the stargate directly.

Her mind was full of contradicting thoughts: part of her wasn't looking forward to meeting SG-1 and trying to fit in but part of her was somewhat curious towards the prospect of interplanetary travel. She was, of course, still cynical about it and wouldn't have her doubts settled until she had experienced the wonders of the stargate firsthand.

Her first time through the gate would come soon enough, though. Until then all she had to do was fit in. Such an act would be difficult but was definitely possible.


	3. The Team

**Chapter Three: The Team**

**Location: **Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colonel Jack O'Neill sighed and then sneezed, putting up one sleeve in front of his face just in time to block the spray of spittle and snot. He snorted, trying to keep his nose from running and to help his situation he pulled a tissue from his pocket and blew into it.

_I hate head-colds._

He couldn't quite work out just how he could have gotten a simple but annoying head-cold (seeing as it wasn't affecting anywhere else) although he guessed it had something to do with not washing his hands…or something entirely different, it was impossible to determine. One thing was for sure though: he hated it, sneezing and sniffling like some pathetic excuse of a human being. He disliked having a blocked and then extremely runny nose, nor did he like having a sore throat. Hopefully he would feel better soon, although it was obvious he would be going to P5H-734 like this.

In the meantime he had things to do. Right now he wasn't doing anything else except sitting around and waiting, another dislike of his. Sure, it wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't have needed to wait so long, as were the rest of SG-1 and the General. The briefing room was quiet, an odd occurrence in such an important part of the stargate program. Here all the missions that each team undertook were discussed, both before and after they were carried out. A set of windows to one side of the room overlooked the gate room and in that large expanse of grey walls, cables and empty space was the ramp that leads straight into the mouth of the stargate. It was a ramp that Jack had traversed many times during the two years the SGC had been in operation

The stargate itself stood about two storeys high, nine inverted dull-red triangles spaced evenly on its edges. A ring of about thirty-nine symbols was on the inside of the ring and rotated when an address was being dialled, each dull-red superconductor locking in one of the symbols, or "chevrons" as they were properly known, in order to dial-up another planet's stargate. It was a process that Jack had seen countless times and one that never really got old. At least, the "splash" or "kawhoosh" effect didn't.

The "splash" occurred as soon as an address had been successfully dialled and the stargate had activated, sending forth a column of water-like blue energy that vaporized anything in its path for a short distance. Once this had fallen back into the portal it was safe to travel through the stargate and to whatever awaited you on the other side.

In the case of P5H-734 there could very well be hostile forces waiting for them. Something had most definitely got hold of SG-8 and had perhaps killed them, although Jack preferred to keep optimistic about such matters. Chances were they were probably just stuck or lost somewhere, although even he knew that was unlikely. Each team took with them a tracking device in order to pinpoint the location of the nearest stargate and so getting lost usually wasn't too easy. It was what you found on the other side that determined how easy it would be to get back.

Obviously something was wrong if SG-8 hadn't returned for over two days past their scheduled time. Jack hadn't been on too many rescue missions through the stargate before since most times had been simple exploration or reconnaissance. Sometimes simple missions such as that could get a whole lot more complicated but otherwise things tended to go smoothly. At least, he would prefer it if they did go smoothly more often.

Carter was still sitting across from him, reports and documents spread out on the table in front of her. She was sitting back in her chair, having decided to get relaxed during their fairly lengthy wait. Daniel, seated on Jack's right, had decided to start reading through the reports for what was at least the third time seeing as their was nothing much else to do. Teal'c was still sitting in his usual manner, his face straight and serious as it often was. Chances were that deep down, the big Jaffa was probably as bored with the situation as Jack was.

General Hammond was seated at the head of the table, occasionally glancing at the watch he was wearing around his left wrist. Earlier he had provided each member of the team the official military dossier on the new team member they were scheduled to receive. Jack had taken the time to flick through it, having noticed a photo of the First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine.

She was young, about thirty-two years old. She had served in the Gulf War in a Special Forces unit, having been part of a team that had been put on a few dangerous and high risk operations. She had won three Purple Hearts and an Air Force medal for her actions during the war, having been wounded three times and having been responsible for completing a high-risk operation solely by herself.

Yes, Jack had been surprised to read of such a feat. His curiosity had been suitably raised and he had read on, finding that the Lieutenant had been part of a squad while she had been a mere Corporal that had been assigned to eliminate a high-ranking Iraqi loyalist soldier who had had his own stronghold located within the Iraqi desert. This stronghold had been heavily guarded and apparently the team had been ambushed and captured, having been sold out by a local from a nearby village. In turn the team had been detained and some of them had been tortured before Katelyn had managed to break out, causing as much havoc in the fortress as possible before eliminating the high ranking Iraqi officer. She had been the only member of her squad to escape, getting wounded in the process.

Jack wasn't to sure whether a soldier that had been tagged "occasionally ruthless" should be allowed into a branch of military such as the stargate program. He did like the sound of "fiercely determined" according to the files in the dossier but all in all he wasn't too fond on receiving a new team member. He couldn't really tell what the others were thinking but they did seem in favour of the addition, leaving him out to be the only one unhappy with it.

In the midst of this seemingly unlikeable situation Jack could determine one bonus, perhaps the most beneficial thing he could find. Katelyn Raine, it seemed, was one hell of a good looking woman. She had the striking, refined womanly features that would make her a preferred girlfriend for most young men. Her hair was a light brown and was neatly tied in a narrow ponytail that hung from about the centre of the back of her head while her eyes shared her hair colour. Even in the photo she looked a bit wild, especially because of the light that seemed to catch in her eyes.

Jack was still a bit apprehensive towards the addition to the team though. He considered such a change "unnecessary" although he knew he could do little to stop it from happening. If she was anything like her dossier had described then she was probably a bit on the wild side.

"General, how long do we have to wait for this girl?" Jack heard himself ask, shifting in his seat. He was beginning to grow impatient of all this waiting around, having spent enough time reading reports and dossiers. Hammond looked up, seemingly unbothered by the fact that they had been waiting for at least half an hour since the briefing just for this new girl to arrive. Apparently her flight had been late and that's why it was taking so long for her to get here, seeing as she was meant to have arrived earlier this morning.

"I'm sure she'll arrive any moment now, Colonel," Hammond replied matter-of-factly. Jack sighed again, an act which made him emit a few subdued coughs.

"Well, I'm done waiting," Jack said, pushing his chair away from the table to give himself enough room to get up. He rose to his feet and turned towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Carter asked, watching him head for the door. Jack stopped and turned around, more intent on spending his time doing more interesting things than waiting around. Still, Carter did deserve an explanation as to why he was leaving.

"I'm going to get something to eat," Jack replied, "all this waiting around has made me hungry. Hell, I doubt this girl's going to even show up…"

"On the contrary, Colonel," a female voice said from the doorway ahead of him. Jack turned around, undoubtedly surprised at the sudden arrival of the strikingly good looking military girl in the green military trousers and black tight-fitting top. It was Lieutenant Raine alright, looking just as she did in the photo in her dossier. She had a smug expression on her face, having noticed Jack's slight embarrassment.

The Colonel quickly composed himself but was saved the effort of replying when Hammond stood up and walked over. Katelyn walked in, surveying the briefing room and its occupants before setting her eye son the General.

"You're finally here, Lieutenant," Hammond said, holding out a hand which Katelyn took and shook firmly. She released the grip and turned to Jack, looking smug enough to annoy the Colonel slightly.

"I always get to where I have to be, even if I'm a little late," she said and the Colonel just nodded along with her statement, managing a false smile. She seemed nice enough, although he had just met here and thus had had little time to form a proper opinion of her.

"You, well…that's great," Jack said with a noticeable lack of care, "good for you. Yeah, good for you…"

"What the Colonel is trying to say is that he's pleased to meet you," Hammond interjected, shifting Katelyn's attention back to him, "and so am I." He paused for a moment before turning towards the table and the three other people seated at it, all of whom were looking towards the Lieutenant with mixed expressions. Teal'c was the only one who seemed to lack any change, only with a hint of what Jack thought was uncertainty in the big man's face.

"Yeah, that's what I was meant to say," Jack added, deciding to simply play along with it. He shook hands with the Lieutenant, surprised at the strong vice-like grip.

_Pretty strong for a woman, I mean,_ he thought with some amusement. He removed his hand from hers, deciding to wait for someone else to say something. His eyes met with the Lieutenant's just briefly and for a second he thought he sensed something more in her, just a little something he couldn't quite work out. Whatever it was it faded as quickly as it had come about.

"Meet the newest member of SG-1," Hammond announced as he turned to face the rest of the team while gesturing towards the Lieutenant, "she'll be working with you for about three weeks, just to see how she goes. Even though she's only a temporary addition I expect you to treat her the same as you treat each other."

Katelyn stepped forward a little too confidently for Jack's liking, stopping at the head of the table and looking at Carter, Daniel and Teal'c in turn. She then turned to look at Jack who was standing a little way to her left and Jack could only guess that she was forming her judgments about each of them. Jack had already formed his judgment of her: just another military girl rising through the ranks with aid from her big-wig daddy.

"Well, I have to say I'm honoured to be a part of this team," she said although Jack could see she didn't mean what she was saying. She probably couldn't care less about who they are and what they did. Instead, she probably just wanted her promotion to Captain already.

"I've read a fair bit about what four and the other teams have done here," Katelyn continued, resting her hands on the top of the seat in front of her, "it's all quite hard to believe yet it was all in the official documents I read. Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie."

There was an awkward silence that followed seeing as no one in the room really ha much of an idea on what to say. Katelyn finally found a way to end this silence, looking towards the Colonel again and examining him briefly.

"You were mentioned an awful lot in the reports I read," Katelyn said, "Colonel Jack O'Neill, the very man in charge of SG-1. You've been through a lot according to what I've read."

_That's a bit of an understatement._

Jack simply shrugged, unable to help but feel a little good about himself. She seemed suitably nice towards him, perhaps a little too nice. Regardless, Jack wasn't looking forward to the extra on the team. She might have been a capable soldier but it would take a lot longer than three weeks for a stable sense of trust to form between the two of them. Unfortunately, neither of them had that time seeing as Katelyn would be off the team in three weeks.

"Yeah, that's true," Jack said in response, unsure of what else he should say. Katelyn looked towards Carter and immediately Jack sensed some dislike crop up in the Lieutenant's expression.

_Competition, perhaps?_ Jack thought this haphazardly and quickly realized the flaw in his line of thinking. _Competition about what? Being the best looking person in the team?_

"You're definitely Captain Samantha Carter," Katelyn said, "and a doctor as well. Quite a CV you must have."

"Welcome to the team, Lieutenant," Carter said simply, obviously not really against Katelyn's inclusion in SG-1.

The Lieutenant looked towards Daniel, regarding him briefly and probably reaching a judgment about him as well. Jack had the faint idea that this had turned into some sort of trial as Katelyn regarded each of them in turn, forming her opinions in her mind while speaking the standard niceties that Jack found easy to see through.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson," Katelyn said, "I read a lot about you in the reports as well."

"You did? Well…I mean, of course you did…" Daniel trailed off, uncertain of what he should say. Meeting a new team member was never going to be something one could just get used to on the spot and as such Daniel was a little…off for the moment.

"The stargate program wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Daniel," Jack added, although he was rudely ignored by the Lieutenant. Only slightly irritated he stayed standing, listening to whatever it was Katelyn was going to say next.

She looked at Teal'c, regarding him in her usual manner. Teal'c eyed the Lieutenant carefully himself, keeping that straight and serious face of his that anyone who knew him had gotten used to over the two years he had been on the team.

"And Teal'c, the noble Jaffa warrior from Chulak," Katelyn said, taking a moment to search her mind for the correct information concerning him. "How's things?" She added, genuinely interested.

"Things have been fine, Lieutenant," Teal'c replied in his usual straight-to-the-point manner.

There was another silence in the briefing room and this time Hammond was the one to break it, seeing as everyone in the room had said what they wanted. Jack found this amusing, seeing as usually they would be happily talking away. It was obvious this unexpected addition to the team had already had some effect on the "delicate team balance" that Jack was a believer in. A new person could definitely shake things up, for better or for worse.

"Lieutenant, it seems you arrived here at a bad time," Hammond said, a little more serious now. Katelyn looked towards him, an eyebrow raised.

"A bad time?"

"Well, more like bad for one of our teams," Jack said, guessing that the upcoming mission to P5H-734 was what Hammond was going to talk about. Katelyn turned to him, suitably interested. In fact, she seemed to like the prospect of a potentially exciting situation.

"SG-8's return is overdue by two days," Hammond said, "and they've been out of contact for even longer. Later on today, at about six p.m, I've scheduled SG-1 to go to the last known location of SG-8 and begin a search for them."

Katelyn listened to what Hammond had to say and Jack could see that she was definitely interested in the details. Hammond picked up a copy of the intelligence SG-8 had sent back before their disappearance and handed it to her, allowing her to flick through it as he continued.

"They went to P5H-734…"

"Hang on a second," Katelyn said, interrupting the General. Hammond looked a little annoyed at the interruption but let it slide for now, allowing the Lieutenant to say whatever it was she was going to say.

"P5H-734? What kind of name is that?"

Carter was the one to answer the question, giving an unsurprisingly scientific sounding answer like she usually did. This was one thing that Jack liked about her: she managed to make even the simplest things sound complicated.

"It's to do with the binary coding our computers use to extrapolate the locations of the planets," Carter explained, "They're categorized according to their distance and which sector of the galaxy the planet's in. The 'P5H' refers to the sector, being a 'Planet' in sector 5H of the galaxy…"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Katelyn said, shaking her head. Carter fell silent; looking a little surprised at the Lieutenant's habit of interrupting people but otherwise simply sat back in her seat and let the others do the talking.

"As I was saying," Hammond said, deciding to get on with what he had been trying to explain earlier, "SG-8 was sent to P5H-734 on a reconnaissance mission. They're now missing and so I've arranged for SG-1 to go and find them. Hopefully nothing serious has happened to them…"

"I don't want to sound pessimistic, but what if something serious has happened?" Daniel asked, looking up from where he was sitting, "I mean, why else would they have gone missing? They could have encountered any sort of alien race and may have done something to annoy them or perhaps the race in question is hostile to outsiders or…"

"Daniel, just be quiet," Jack said in as kind a manner as possible, interrupting the Egyptologist during what sounded like the start of a rant. Daniel fell silent, realizing that he must have been speaking a little too quickly.

"I was just saying, anything could have happened to them and we could be walking right into a trap," Daniel said, "They could have encountered the Goa'uld for all we know. If the coordinates for this planet were on the Abydos cartouche then chances are the Goa'uld know of its existence and could still be there…"

"I agree," Carter said, "it could be a trap set up by the Goa'uld to draw us straight to them. After all, we did kind of meddle with their plans for enslaving the Earth…"

"Yeah, we've pretty much made a major nuisance of ourselves," Jack added absently. Katelyn had been listening to all of this and seemed to agree, although she wasn't about to suggest scrubbing the mission. There were lives at stake and perhaps more interesting things to be found on the planet designated P5H-734.

"And you'd rather leave SG-8 to their fates?" Hammond asked, providing what was obviously a rhetorical question. Jack, Carter and Daniel shook their heads, noticing Hammond tense slightly at the suggestion of not carrying out the mission. "I could always send a more willing team…" He added, expecting SG-1 to not like this idea of being replaced on the mission. He was right.

"Actually I'm not saying we don't go," Daniel said, "I'm just saying that it could be dangerous…more so than most of our other trips through the stargate."

"We've been in some pretty dangerous situations," Jack said, speaking the truth. How bad could searching for SG-8 possibly get anyway? As he had figured earlier, they were probably just lost or stuck somewhere. They had last reported in that they were headed for the mountain range several miles from the stargate so chances were that they were still there.

"I say we go," Katelyn said bluntly, deciding to add her thoughts to the matter. The others were silent, a little put-off by her blunt and heavy-handed answer. Katelyn looked up, finding their sudden silence surprising.

"What? Doesn't anyone else agree with me?"  
"I agree with you, Lieutenant Raine," Teal'c said from his part of the table. Katelyn nodded, thankful to see that someone agreed. Jack could already tell that those two would get along famously.

"That's what I want to hear," Katelyn said, putting her copy of the reports and papers onto the table. "We're going to go to P5 whatever and find this missing team."

_Well, now who's become the team's cheer leader?_

Jack could see that things could get interesting with someone like Katelyn Raine on the team. She already seemed to have reached an understanding with Teal'c since the pair obviously shared the same sort of thinking: no use voicing doubts and complaining, it was best they just went ahead and did it. Jack did agree, seeing no sense in leaving SG-8 in possible danger for any longer than they had to. He just didn't think their situation added up, to be quite frank. A team just simply didn't go missing on an off-world mission: they were either dead or alive and were either safe or in danger. They could be dead and safe, in a way.

"Good to see you're in the spirit, Lieutenant," Hammond said, pleased with the Lieutenant's action, "the last thing I want to do is write to the family's of those missing team members about why they're missing and presumed dead."

"Uh, General…Don't you think it's a bit on short notice to simply let the Lieutenant tag along with us on this mission when it's only her first day here?" Jack asked, receiving what seemed to be a rather irritated look from the Lieutenant. She seriously seemed keen on going, as would be any other newcomer to the stargate program. Travelling the distant worlds was definitely something very few people got to do.

"What are you saying, Colonel?" Hammond asked slowly, a frown creeping onto his ageing features, "are you saying that she's not up to the job?"

"I'm always up for the job," Katelyn said confidently.

"Of course you are," Jack said, unable to help but shoot her a suitably smug look. She wasn't fazed by it however, able to see that the Colonel was intent on being an ass towards her.

"Why? Don't you like me, Colonel?"

Jack took a moment to answer this. Sure, she wasn't so bad but he had never taken kindly to eager young newcomers.

"Well, that's a hard question to answer," He said, much to the Lieutenant's irritation, "Depends on how you're going to act during your time with us."  
"Going to lay down some rules, Colonel?" Katelyn asked, raising an eyebrow, "because if you are, go right ahead. I can follow them just like I follow my orders: to the letter."

_A bit cocky, I see._

Jack found himself lost for words for the moment, realizing he didn't actually have any rules to lay down. He tried to disguise this fact but could see that Katelyn found his lack of response a little amusing.

"At a loss for words, Colonel?"

"Uh…No, not really," Jack replied, finding this woman's smug attitude a little annoying. Hell, she was almost sort of like him. This was one thought he didn't particularly like. One Jack O'Neill was enough for any team.

Before Jack could continue talking he noticed that the Lieutenant had been distracted by something and was stepping over to the windows that overlooked the gate room. Jack followed her, realizing she hadn't actually seen the stargate before (perhaps in pictures but otherwise not in reality). Hammond walked over to the windows as well, just in time to watch as the gate activated and send forth a column of water-like blue energy.

Once the portal had stabilized, leaving the rippling event horizon within the ring, about four men in standard SG team gear emerged from it. Katelyn watched with some noticeable awe on her face as they emerged from what appeared to be an upright swimming pool.

"_Welcome back, SG-6," _the announcer's voice sounded through this area of the base's PA system as the four men started down the ramp from the mouth of the stargate. Behind them the event horizon disappeared with a _whoosh_, leaving empty space in its place. The lights on the orange superconductors on the edges of the stargate dimmed and unlocked from place.

"Great, ain't it?" Jack said, although the awe had dropped from the Lieutenant's face and she had her usual self-important look on her.

"You're going to have to memorize the coordinates for Earth, Lieutenant," Hammond said, bringing up a rather important point, "you never know when you might need them."

"Shouldn't be too difficult," she replied. She paused for a moment before adding in reference to the stargate, "I thought it'd be bigger."

Jack could see she was only trying to act unimpressed. Through that tough girl act he could sense a more child-like curiosity, one that might explain why she seemed so eager to head off on this rescue mission.

"What's it like?" Katelyn asked. For a moment Jack wasn't sure what she was talking about and raised an eyebrow.

"The stargate, you know, going through it," she added, making her question a lot clearer.

"It used to be freezing cold," Carter said from her part of the briefing table, "now it's just like stepping through a door, if you want to think of it that way. We installed some frequency dampers to make the ride easier. It also helps in stopping the entire base from shaking like it used to…"  
Katelyn nodded although it was obvious she didn't particularly care for the intricacies of the stargate's operating principle. Yet another silence fell upon the briefing room, one that Jack broke this time around.

"You know, it's getting close to lunch," Jack said, deciding to get back to what he had been planning on doing before Katelyn had arrived, "I'm hungry. Who wants to go and get something to eat?"


	4. Cafeteria

**Chapter Four: Cafeteria**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex

The Commissary, otherwise known as the "mess hall" or "cafeteria", was one of two similar facilities within the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Understandably one was for the joint Civilian and Military operations section of the base in the upper levels, the mess hall for this section located on sublevel three. The Commissary for the SGC was located on sublevel 22. It was a large expanse of a room filled with tables with chairs grouped around them. A kitchen was to the far end of the room where chefs worked hard to cook the variety of cuisine for the personnel of the SGC, although such hard work often came with mixed results. On a day such as Monday the menu would consist of such things as soup, toasted sandwiches and perhaps chicken schnitzel for dinner. There were plenty of extras such as fries and salad, as well as cakes and fruit for dessert.

The food here was perhaps better than what it was at most other military installations, a fact that few in the SGC appreciated. The food itself was often at best dodgy and ill-appetizing but since the people here had little option but to eat it they did so grudgingly. If the food was bad here than it was probably worse in similar military bases.

Today for lunch Jack had the faint clue they may be having some sort of soup, perhaps sided with some sandwiches. Of course, the sign out the front of the Commissary explained today's menu enough for anyone to get a good idea of what was available: LUNCH—TOASTED SANDWICHES OR SOUP OR BOTH. He liked it when he was right.

Having only just left behind the briefing room, Jack had taken an elevator along with Katelyn and Daniel up to sublevel twenty-two in order to arrive before the lunchtime crowd. Their timeliness was well rewarded since it was only about eleven thirty and the food was just being brought out, the cafeteria area itself mostly empty saves for a few groups of guards and technicians eating over in the corner. Jerry, the resident chef, stood behind the smorgasbord of trays of food at the front looking awfully bored and wearing an apron.

Jack was well accustomed to the quality of the food here at the SGC, having gotten used to its occasional decent quality and its occasional questionable quality. It all depended on what was being made, seeing as dinners suffered the most since they were often the most complicated. Breakfast, on the other hand, was a simple affair usually involving cereal or toast.

Jerry was in his late forties, a rather disgruntled member of the SGC who had been working here ever since the stargate program had been founded. Jack had gotten used to the man's grizzled, rough attitude and lack of a sense of humour and had even gotten used to the chef's often questionable cooking skills. It seemed no military base had a decent cook; at least none where Jack had been had had any.

His sore throat had more or less gone for now, still leaving him with a blocked or runny nose (it simply depended on what he was doing) and a habit of coughing on things. The antibiotics he had taken earlier this morning had seemed to help, although such medicines could only work for a limited time before the human body grew accustomed to them. He knew he shouldn't be making such a big deal out of a cold but it had been a long time since he had last had one and so he had grown to like the idea of being perfectly healthy and virus free.

Jack, Daniel and Katelyn made their way through the cafeteria and towards the table covered with warm trays of toasted sandwiches and bowls of soup. Jerry was standing behind it, looking bored as he often did and occasionally scratching at his greying hair.

Halting at the joined tables, Jack looked down at the selection of sandwiches and the few vats of soup available. He then looked at Jerry, managing a smile at the disgruntled chef. Jerry just stared at him, unimpressed.

"Afternoon, Jerry," Jack said, "what's on the menu today?"

Jerry just looked at him with a frown, gesturing towards the sandwiches and two vats of soup. The drinks were on a table nearby where a man in a technician's uniform was filling a glass up with apple juice.

"You saw the sign outside, didn't you?" Jerry asked in a monotone.

"Yeah," Jack nodded, "but I bet there's more to it than just soup and sandwiches…"

"There isn't," Jerry replied bluntly, "now get some food and leave me alone."

Jack decided not to keep Jerry any longer, instead grabbing an empty off of the table to his left where all the trays were stacked and grabbing a pair of the toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Jerry took a few spoonfuls of soup and dumped them into the bowl on Jack's tray, the Colonel taking a look at the soup and noticing that it looked more like dark yellowed water with bits of chicken floating around in it.

"Looks good," Katelyn said from his right, referring to the soup. Jack nodded, unable to agree more with this obviously sarcastic comment. He looked at the Lieutenant's tray, noticing that she had three of the sandwiches stacked on her tray and was cheerfully spooning a large amount of coleslaw onto the side.

Jack was still a little upset at her inclusion in the team although he couldn't bring himself to be to angry at her. It had been her father's decision to get her sent here and to be put into SG-1 temporarily. Jack was just a little annoyed at the woman's rudeness and obvious self-importance, walking around with an air of confidence wherever she seemed to go. No wonder she received wanting glances from most of the young men they had passed on the way here although military fraternization policies prevented anything more from happening.

She had the looks to go with her personality, with the eyes and the fire Jack could see in them. She had seemed a bit blunt during the conversation up in the briefing room and had obviously developed a bit of a dislike for Captain Carter. Why this was the case was beyond Jack's knowledge although perhaps it was just the type of meeting in which one person instantly came to the conclusion that they would never end up liking the other person and had reacted accordingly.

Carter wasn't with the three of them right now, apparently having had some work to attend to in her personal laboratory on sublevel twenty-one. She always seemed to be working on something scientific, seeing as she was genuinely a scientist at heart rather than a soldier. Jack could never understand scientists and their habit of complicating things. Unlike Carter, he didn't spend his spare time on the base researching wormhole physics. Rather, he did something far more physically stimulating such as boxing or going to the base's firing range for some target practice.

Teal'c didn't seem to eat as many times a day as everybody else, usually spending this time in his quarters meditating. It was a daily ritual for him and something that everyone else left him alone to do. He was a quiet man, Teal'c, and a private man at that.

"You haven't experienced living in the SGC fully until you've tried the food," Daniel said to Katelyn, grabbing his share of the lunch items available. Once the three of them had gathered their desired food and poured themselves a glass of one of the drinks on offer they headed for a vacant table, seating themselves around it and setting their trays on the table in front of them.

"I guess I haven't," Katelyn said, placing her spoon into her bowl of soup and letting it dribble off with all the properties of water. It didn't look all too appetizing, although the toasted sandwiches seemed fine.

_Who could possibly stuff up toasting a sandwich?_

There was a brief silence before Daniel spoke, seeing as Katelyn and Jack had already dug in to their meals. Already a number of base personnel were making their way into the cafeteria to get something to eat, the lunchtime crowd really starting to form.

"So, Katelyn, tell us more about yourself," Daniel said, "you seemed to have read all about us…"  
"And I saw you reading my file in the briefing room when I came in," Katelyn replied, "so I'm sure you already know a lot about me."

Daniel nodded, finding that this statement did make a considerable amount of sense. He obviously knew as much about her as she did about him and it was obvious she wasn't the one for small-talk.

Jack, on the other hand, felt like some small-talk. Besides, if the Lieutenant was going to be on the team and helping them out in all manner of situations then they did deserve to get to know her better than they did. Hell, they were going to be going to some faraway and potentially dangerous world later on today.

General Hammond had decided to send them to P5H-734 at six p.m, giving just over six hours for SG-8 to report back in. He was hoping nothing had happened to them, although chances were that something had indeed gone wrong on their standard reconnaissance mission and so hadn't been able to contact them for two days. It was definitely wishful thinking on the General's part and who knows, maybe SG-8 would return during that time. If they did then a great deal of worry would leave Jack's mind.

He knew the dangers of stargate travel more than anyone else. It wasn't so much stepping into the portal that was dangerous; it was usually what awaited someone on the other side. That could make all the difference and determine a routine mission from a dangerous one.

"Files can only tell so much about someone," Jack said, "it's a well known fact that talking to someone face to face is a much better means of learning about them. I think, seeing as you're officially a member of the team, that we do deserve to know a bit more about you than what the files said…"

Katelyn raised an eyebrow, swallowing the chunk of sandwich she had been chewing. She sighed, as if resigned to the task of talking about herself.

"What do you want to know?" She asked.

Jack thought about this for a moment. There could be all manner of things that the files hadn't mentioned, although it wasn't like Jack had read the whole thing. He wasn't exactly an avid reader and didn't read too many books. He usually didn't have the time seeing as he was always finding other things to do and was usually going on off-world trips anyway.

"Anything," he replied, "Just tell us about yourself. I'd prefer to hear it from you rather than read it from a report."

Katelyn gave him an odd look but went on to talk anyway, sitting back in her seat and taking a sip from her glass of apple juice before speaking.

"Well, I'm thirty-two, I'm a Lieutenant and I don't like small talk," she said, "why?"

"That's good, Lieutenant," Jack said, smiling, "keep talking."

She looked surprised at the request, raising an eyebrow. Jack could tell that her time in the team would be interesting, seeing as she seemed like a typical tough-minded military girl. The military seemed to be full of them nowadays.

"What? I don't know where to start," she said, "what do you want me to say?"  
Jack sighed, able to see that she was more difficult to talk to than any other woman he had met. Regardless, he simply shrugged while Daniel sat next to him, listening as the conversation unfolded.

"For starters, are you a cat person or a dog person?" Daniel asked. Jack gave him a funny look but he didn't seem too bothered by it, instead facing the Lieutenant and waiting for an answer.

Katelyn took a moment to answer.

"I've always preferred cats…"

She seemed genuine in her answer, displaying a slight hint of friendliness. For a moment that tough girl aura had faded, her eyes firmly set on the Colonel as she thought through her answer. Jack didn't like the look in her eyes for that moment, as if there was something more…

Then it hit him. He was surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier but perhaps his annoyance at having a cold and at the fact that they were receiving a new team member had clouded his better judgement. He had seen that look in a woman's eyes before, the one that told him that she liked him. As in "liked him" more than in the friendly sense.

Well, Jack was suitably surprised. He couldn't be sure though and preferred to not say anything. For one thing, he might have found her a good looking girl and all but she just wasn't his type. It was reassuring to know that he was still attractive to the younger ladies. He couldn't help but smirk, finding the fact that he still had his "touch" when it came to women. Even better was the fact he hadn't done anything for her to like him.

Katelyn stood up, having finished off her sandwiches and part of her salad. She looked towards both Daniel and Jack for a moment, as if nervous about something all of a sudden. It was amusing to see such a tough-acting girl lose her cool all of a sudden, Jack having a good idea why. Daniel, however, was watching her with some confusion.

"I need to use the bathroom," she said, turning around and starting out of the mess hall.

Once she was gone, Daniel turned to Jack and noticed the Colonel's smug expression.

"She's a bit odd, isn't she?"

The Colonel nodded.

"Yeah, I guess she is," he said, sitting back in his seat. He had begun to think that having her on the team wouldn't be so bad after all.

"She does seem a bit…you know…" Daniel trailed off, obviously trying his best to imply something. Jack took a moment to catch on but when he did he agreed entirely.

"Bitchy?" Jack suggested as an ending to Daniel's statement. The archaeologist nodded and Jack agreed with this opinion as well. The one new person they get and she turns out to be a bit of a bitchy, tough acting military girl.

"You could say that," Daniel said.

Jack was about to mention the feeling he had about the new girl liking him but didn't end up saying anything since a familiar figure sat down in the vacant chair across from him, next to where Katelyn had been sitting. It was Carter, a fairly pleasant surprise during this particular lunchtime. She brought with her a tray of food, placing it in front of her and regarding Jack and Daniel in turn.

"Ah, Captain, nice of you to join us," Jack said, "Daniel and I were just talking about the Lieutenant, what's her name again…" He paused for a moment, thinking. "Raine, wasn't it?"

"A bit of an odd last name," Daniel added.

Carter raised an eyebrow.

"Raine? I can't believe the General's stuck us with her," Carter said, trying her best to keep her cool. Jack could see the dislike Katelyn had for the Captain was a shared feeling, a fact that only made him smile. Both women in the team were already at each other's throats and it had only been about an hour since they had met.

"Oh, come now Captain, she's not that bad," Jack said, doing his best to sound more than a little condescending. He could already tell that Katelyn's time in SG-1 would be full of amusement, especially when it came to her involvement with the capable Captain Samantha Carter. Quite a rivalry could form since both seemed like the tough military woman type.

"Maybe not to you," Carter said, only a little annoyed, "but the way she looks at me…it's like my sheer existence gets on her nerves."

Jack shrugged. What could he possibly say to that?

"It probably does for all we know," he said, finding that Carter seemed a bit irritated at his matter-of-fact way of saying it, "but things may be bad for you when it comes down to the Lieutenant, but for me I think things are starting to look up."

"What do you mean?" Carter wasn't impressed, narrowing her eyes and frowning.

Jack couldn't help but keep the self-important tone out of his voice, smiling smugly as he answered her question.

"I think the Lieutenant likes me," he replied. He instantly noticed the surprised and doubtful look on Carter's face while Daniel only raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Jack sneezed again, having to blow his nose clean on a tissue he removed from his trouser pocket. Once he was done he could get to explaining his assumption in more detail.

"I seriously do think the new girl likes me," Jack said, "I mean, the way she looks at me. She was just in here and left abruptly, apparently to use the bathroom. I think she's just in the toilet thinking about me…"

Carter was naturally sceptical but also a bit curious to hear more. Jack could also sense some apprehension in her, knowing that if Jack was right about the Lieutenant liking him then perhaps Carter had some competition for the best looking man in the squad. At least, this was what Jack preferred to think would be the case. For all he knew he could be wrong about the Lieutenant liking him and could just be making a complete idiot of himself in front of Carter and Daniel. He realized the two of them would poke fun at him for this for months to come if he turned out to be wrong.

"What's the matter Carter?" He asked her, smiling, "worried that now there might be some competition in winning over the best looking guy in the squad?"  
Carter scoffed.

"In your dreams, Colonel," she said bluntly.

Jack could sense some uneasiness in the Captain's voice, a definite sign that perhaps both women in the squad had a liking for him. Daniel, on the other hand, was looking a little annoyed.

"Best looking man in the squad?" He said, "you're obviously becoming a bit self-centred there, Jack."

Jack laughed. Then he coughed a few times, finding it increasingly hard to get a good chuckle going due to his cold. He looked down at what was left of his lunch and found that he didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"So Captain, what do you think we'll find when we arrive on P5H-734?" Jack asked, changing the subject. Carter thought about this for a moment, still a little flustered by Jack's previous remarks. He had to admit though; she did look good when she was angry.

"To be honest sir, I have no idea," she said, "those energy signatures they reported could be anything…"  
"Like a Goa'uld base?"

She paused, thinking about this briefly.

"Possibly."

Jack nodded. If they were going to be leaving for this planet later on today he would have preferred to know the full extent of the hostile forces on it. However, apparently SG-8 hadn't encountered any other intelligent life according to the information they had sent back so either they had found some that wasn't too friendly or they were just lost. The former seemed the much more probable conclusion to draw from the briefing.

"Well, I for one find that this whole mission seems a bit odd," Jack said, "a whole team doesn't simply vanish without a trace. They found something and I'm betting on the fact that it wasn't friendly."

Carter frowned.

"Good to see you're an optimist, sir," she said with a slight hint of sarcasm. Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not an optimist, Captain," he said, "I'm a realist. Sort of, at least." He was about to say something else when Katelyn returned, arriving at the table and noticing Carter's presence with some disdain.

"You took your time," Jack said to the Lieutenant, "I was beginning to think you'd fallen in or something…"

Katelyn didn't say anything; instead she gathered up her tray and headed off to clean out the food scraps into a bin. Jack could see Carter's presence had had an obvious effect on the girl and as a result she was leaving. Either that or she wasn't hungry.

"Ah, look what you did to the poor girl, Carter," Jack said with a smile. He was finding this whole dislike between the two to be quite amusing although Carter didn't seem to share his amusement.

"You were probably right about your sheer existence annoying her," Jack added. He watched the Lieutenant scrape out her food scraps into a bin at the front of the cafeteria before placing the dirty tray on a stand with all the other awaiting to be cleaned and headed off and out of the cafeteria.

"I can see the next three weeks are going to be interesting," Daniel said, "especially since she seems to not like you, Captain."

"I don't remember doing anything to her," Carter replied, unamused, "unless, of course, I'm forgetting something."

Jack sat back in his seat, taking another tissue out of his pocket and blowing his nose into it. He was surprised at the amount of mucus that came out as if there was a never-ending supply up his nose that was blocking it up. There probably _was_ a never-ending supply up there, a fact that implied he was going to need more tissues.

"Feeling alright, sir?" It was Carter who asked this and Jack, in response, shook his head.

"Just a head-cold," he replied, "seems to be affecting my nose the most. It's annoying though, having to blow my nose every five minutes."

There was a brief silence for the moment and Jack finished wiping up at his nose, finding nowhere else to put the snotty tissue but back into his pocket. A bit icky but the only option he had.

"I think the Lieutenant's a bit of a troubled woman," he said, remembering what he had read in her file, "that might explain why she's a bit…odd. Did you read about what she did in the Gulf War? She was the only survivor out of her squad, apparently."

Carter nodded, although she didn't seem as interested as he was in the subject.

"That might explain her apparent 'ruthless' tendencies," Carter suggested.

The trio sat quietly, thinking this over for a moment. Jack, done with most of his thinking for the day, stood up and picked up his tray.

"I feel like some chocolate cake all of a sudden," he said, looking towards the food trays over at the front of cafeteria. By now the desserts were out and he could see his preferred choice awaiting him on one the trays.

"Who wants to come up and get dessert with me?" He asked, already starting on his way towards the cakes. Such treats were only available on certain days of the week, today being one of those days. He wasn't hesitant on having some regardless of the calorie intake; he could always work off what he gained in weight anyway.

Jack had the feeling that today would just get more interesting as it went on. He found the Lieutenant's dislike of Carter quite amusing and was eager to see what it would be like out in the field, during a mission. Seeing as they were heading off on one later today he wouldn't have to wait too long.

Another interesting thing was the mission itself: no one on the team knew what to expect and as a result it could be a very long mission indeed. It could also be a dangerous mission as well, not that Jack and the others hadn't been in similar situations in the past. He could name plenty, from the first mission to Chulak to the more recent incursion by the Reetou. It was funny though, how most of the planets they arrived on seemed very much like Earth. Carter had managed to come up with some sort of explanation as to why this was the case, something about the stargates being placed on worlds suitable to sustain life and such. He was guessing that P5H-734 was much the same as all the other worlds he had been to.

Whatever awaited them on the planet could wait a while, seeing as Hammond was giving SG-8 a number of hours to report back in and prove that they weren't in trouble. Jack doubted they would chime back in; otherwise it would be awfully convenient if they did.

He was trained to be ready for anything so such a mission shouldn't turn out to be anything he and the others couldn't handle. With the extra help on the squad they may be able to handle almost anything, a fact that made him realize just how welcome Katelyn's addition to the squad should be. Maybe he had just been in a bad mood earlier or maybe the Lieutenant's tough attitude had grown on him, it was hard to tell. Now he was thinking they needed the help, a fact he wasn't afraid to admit but never in front of the Lieutenant.

_Admit it: you like her._

Jack didn't really think much of this thought as it popped into his mind, in fact he was concentrating on picking his desserts.

_Then again, you like Carter as well. Yet neither of you have done anything about it._

The military strictly forbade fraternization, although it was a popular fact that rules and regulations did little to stop most people. Jack wasn't about to risk his military career over the possible liking the new girl might have for him. Instead, he decided he would just play along and see what developed. Who knows, maybe she would admit it first. He would prefer it that way.

While he was thinking this through, other people on the far away world of P5H-734 were thinking over more important matters. There was one in particular who was faced with a bit of a dilemma, one that required some good planning…

* * *

**Note:  
**Don't be fooled by the slow start. Originally there was going to be an action-packed prologue but I sort of dumped that idea as I got more into the story. Stay with it and things will get interesting...trust me. I wrote it, after all.


	5. Interlude I

**Location: **P5H-734, several miles north of the location of the planet's stargate

**Stargate Coordinates: **21, 20, 15, 39, 32, 27/Point of origin: 13

The air was cold and the skies were overcast, hinting at the possibility of rain. The smell of water was thick in the air, further fuelling this possibility of coming rains and giving anyone outside more reason to find shelter. All in all it seemed that a storm was approaching, albeit in more ways than one.

P5H-734 was an Earth-type world, unspoilt by pollution and home to only a small human civilization. This particular region was covered in jungles, filled to the brim with wildlife and exotic alien vegetation. However, behind this paradise-like setting were unstable weather conditions due to the planet's magnetic fields: storms were frequent right across its surface and often the thunder and lightning was deafening, sparking wildfires that raged on for days. This particular area had remained untouched by fires for a while, lying nestled in a valley at the base of a set of tall snow-topped mountains. Rainforest surrounded these mountains all around while a wide and lengthy river carved its way through the valley, forming a few breathtaking waterfalls on its course.

The planet's system had only one sun whilst about three moons of differing sizes orbited P5H-734 at differing distances, one high up and distant whilst another was quite close and daunting. Its crater-marked surface was visible whenever the sky was clear and the sun was out, giving a clear indication that for all its similarities, this world was not Earth.

Set in a clearing a fair distance down the valley was the planet's resident stargate, a device that was set in a series of ancient stone steps that were overgrown with weeds and vegetation. The stargate itself had seen better days, dirtied and almost overgrown with weeds and creepers as much as the steps under it were. The metallic sheen that the naquadah of the stargate often had was long gone, smothered over with dirt and the dust of ages. However, for all of its age it had recently been activated, the wormhole opening forth and allowing a team of four to step through it. This had been two days ago and that team had been distracted enough to leave a half-constructed camp near the stargate, full of crates of supplies such as food and weapons. A laptop computer lay open inside whilst a power generator vibrated and coughed, barely able to keep itself going for much longer.

However, all that had been worth taking was gone. The laptop had been smashed while most of the crates had been pulled open, sending their contents spilling out onto the ground. The tent itself, a green one with a military camouflage pattern, was riddled with tears from bullet holes. A few blood stains lay within, the result of an unfortunate soul who had been inside the tent at the time when the bullets had torn through the tough fabric.

Now the clearing was as quiet as it had always been, the wind whistling through the nearby undergrowth and rustling the tall grass. A lone signal beacon, left behind by SG-8, beeped continuously from atop a table that had been placed outside the tent but it communicated to no one. At least, no one who was interested.

It had been this beacon, a signal emanating from one of the team's GDO devices (Garage Door Opener, used to send a code through the wormhole back to the SGC so the iris over the gate could be opened) that had lead Roland Halverson and his forces straight to the team. When the attack had occurred only one of the four team members had been in residence at the camp, the other three having headed off to explore the mysterious energy signatures that emanated from within the mountain range that was visible on the far end of the valley. She had been an unfortunate young Lieutenant, seated at the desk within the tent and working at the laptop. Roland, personally, hadn't been there when the attack had occurred but he had set his best team, lead by the unpredictable Captain Sarah Taylor, to investigate the camp site. Some "investigating" they had done, instead going about and shooting the place up. The young Lieutenant inside had been cut to ribbons; Captain Taylor's team having gotten close without being heard had simply opened fire on the tent with their firearms. Unexpectedly, such a brash attack had left hardly any useful intelligence behind.

Roland had investigated the Lieutenant's corpse, searching the pockets and pouches in the bloodied uniform and finding ID tags and other items such as some sort of military-tech tricorder device. He had done this about an hour after the raid, having ordered the body brought to his own makeshift base camp near the base of the largest mountain in the range. Her corpse lay spread-eagled on a table within the medical tent, providing a rather unwelcome and grisly sight. Roland had carefully searched through the Lieutenant's things, finding a multitude of items and some evidence as to who she was and why she had been here. He had been told to be wary of these people, the ones that could very well ruin all that was taking place here.

SG-8 was a more scientific team than the others he had heard of. There were four of them, one lying on the table within the medical tent while the other three were currently being pursued by Captain Taylor and her squad. Roland could tell that they had had no idea of his presence or the presence of his forces here on this planet otherwise they would have come far more prepared and perhaps with other teams for support.

Roland was about forty-seven, a tall man with a muscular frame which was hidden beneath a specially made armour vest with a grey-black design, his trousers a lighter shade of grey. He was wearing dark leather gloves to go with his close-fitting military outfit although he lacked any sort of helmet of headgear, instead preferring to leave his vision unhindered by such accessories. His hair was dark and cut short, his demeanour often quiet and sullen. His almost grey eyes seemed to stare into the furthest reaches of one's soul, even though Roland always seemed to keep a straight and neutral expression. He was a business-minded kind of man, one who had no time for interference in his scheme from SGC teams.

He fiddled briefly with the tricorder device, finding that it had been tuned to home in on the strongest of the energy signatures. This particular signature came from within the nearby mountain, amplified by an obelisk like structure on the mountain's peak. This structure served as a marker, a marker for those who had come here long ago and had been forced to leave…

Roland found the woman's dog tags, taking note of the details they had etched on them: SECOND LIEUTENANT JESSICA KELLEY, #7622-K7 Blood Type A-Minus. He regarded them briefly with indifference, placing them on the nearby bench with the tricorder as he went on to search for anything else of vague interest. He removed the woman's sidearm, a Beretta 92F pistol, along with one of the GDO devices. He looked at the number keypad and the small LCD display that went with it, finding that there was no indication of the team's code at all. He pressed one of the numbered buttons, hearing it beep faintly but otherwise nothing happened.

He was inside a medical tent within the compound his men had constructed in the past week since their arrival. The compound lay at the base of the largest mountain of the range, within a fairly clear area surrounded on all but one side by jungle. On the other side was the rocky outcrops at the base of the mountain and set amongst the rocks was a tunnel entrance, an artificially created one that opened into a vast and intricate network of tunnels and mines that hadn't been opened for over a thousand years. Only recently had they been opened and a number of facilities set up within the mountain along with these ancient tunnels. All of this had been done by the organization known simply as the SDIOA, the very organization Roland had set out to destroy. To help him he had an army of loyal followers and many of them were within this camp, going about setting up further tents and guard posts in order to protect against possible intrusion.

_They can't be here_.

Roland looked down at the dead Lieutenant, gazing into the dead woman's eyes with surprising intensity. The arrival of her and her three team members changed everything.

_This isn't possible._

He clenched one fist, overcome briefly with a rage which he only just managed to control. He took a deep breath, eyeing the shoulder patch on the dead Lieutenant's uniform carefully. It was a picture of Earth, imprinted upon it the pyramid and circle symbol of the Earth stargate's point of origin chevron symbol. Below, 'SG-8' was printed across the base of the arm-patch.

His benefactors had warned him about the SGC teams. There were twelve in total, some devoted to certain aspects of travelling to distant worlds. He had been warned that they had the potential to interfere if they found him out and that if the operation here was found out he could bet on many more of them coming. That was why the part of his scheme which involved sealing the planet's stargate became more important as the hours went by, although they were yet to receive the resources necessary for such an undertaking. He was beginning on considering simply knocking the thing down and burying it under a few tonnes of rock but even this would take time. Time was something he nor any of his soldiers had.

_This changes everything._

What did he know about SG-8? Almost nothing, except that there were three more of the pesky team's soldiers wandering around in the jungle somewhere. If any one of them made it back to the stargate and back to Earth then all sorts of trouble could start up. At the moment his resources were stretched thin so they couldn't spare the men to guard the stargate. Only when reinforcements were due to arrive later today would they be able to do that. Currently most squads were routinely scouring and eliminating every SDIOA outpost they found and preventing any of the organization's personnel from escaping.

Roland left the medical tent, ordering the medic who had been waiting outside to burn the dead Lieutenant's corpse. Outside, in the camp, soldiers in grey-blue full body armour suits milled around carrying high-tech looking assault rifles. Those that he walked past saluted him and he acknowledged their respect for their leader by nodding to their salutes.

He felt the first few droplets of rain hit him on the side of the face and he stopped, looking up as the rain started pouring heavier. It was probably only a shower, a precursor to the big storm that was threatening to break the banks of the valley's river. If such an event occurred then the whole valley could be flooded, a definite obstacle to the operation they were carrying out here.

Roland continued on across the camp, watching as a pair of grey-blue armoured SUVs pulled to a stop at the edge of the camp. He had been intelligent enough to organize for vehicle's to be transported to here since they would undoubtedly aid in the latter stages of the operation and in the search for the three intruding SG-8 team members. Tracking these three team members down was the young, twenty-nine year old Captain Sarah Taylor, perhaps one of the best soldiers he had ever come across but a definite loose cannon.

Roland arrived at the command tent located just outside the mountain complex's entrance. He wandered past the SDIOA front security checkpoint, simply glancing over at the pair of soldiers who were busy removing the corpses of the dead SDIOA personnel from the guard house nearby. Roland and his men had successfully secured the outside of the complex and were working on the inside, successfully purging it of SDIOA personnel.

The inside of the fairly warm command tent almost looked like that of a room Generals would use to plan battles: computers hooked up to solar powered generators and power cells as backup lined the walls while a large table was set within the centre of the tent. Laid out across the table was a large scale map of the surrounding area while several plastic blocks, representing different sections of Roland's loyal forces, were placed on the map in accordance to their real-world positions. It was a room Roland had frequented since it was set up, planning his soldier's movements and marking any points of interest upon the map.

So far six energy signatures had been detected in the surrounding area, the most powerful being the one from within the SDIOA mountain complex. All six had been marked on the large table-top map by Roland in red permanent marker. Roland had been moving his forces accordingly, intent on removing the SDIOA presence off of this planet and continuing with the operation uninterrupted. The arrival of an SG team had changed all of this, however. Now he had to contemplate on the possible arrival of another team coming to look for the missing one. He had the feeling that such an occurrence would ultimately cause trouble for him and his loyal forces.

Also marked on the map was the location of the stargate and SG-8's camp site. As well as these two points of interest, Roland had taken the care to outline the entire native town that was nestled outside the valley to the north-west. Very little contact had been made with the locals of this world but it seemed they were yet another transplanted bunch of humans who had been here for a few thousand years, having been taken to this world through the stargate by the Goa'uld. According to reports from Roland's scouts, these locals had reached a technological level reminiscent of 16th century Europe. They had primitive guns and primitive medicine and seemed to live in a reasonable state of peace, this particular town near an important ore deposit that exported its goods to other cities. This ore was actually naquadah, the very material that the stargates were built from. It seemed these locals used it in everything, from buildings to weapons.

Roland had no reason to interfere with the locals. It wasn't what he had come here to do, having decided to leave the local population well enough alone. He had come here with his army to conquer the SDIOA presence and enact retribution upon them for all they had done, to not only him but to many more people. As well as this there was something important buried within the mountain, hence the reason the SDIOA had even bothered to build a base there in the first place. They had been trying to get to it for some time and hadn't been too successful. Roland, on the other hand, had the right equipment in order to succeed in getting this item. All he needed to do was find out where it was located and thus plan accordingly.

He was hoping that Sarah Taylor would take it easy with SG-8. He would prefer all three remaining team members to be kept alive for purposes of his own but he had the feeling that Sarah would have some trouble with this order. He knew that he needed to carry out everything in this operation in a precise and efficient manner; otherwise his whole scheme would be ruined. As such he had begun thinking on what to do with the recent development of SG-8's arrival and was already reaching a few probable and sound conclusions.

There was no use in killing all of them; this was a fact that he was certain of. None of them had done anything except be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had nothing against them, just as long as they kept out of his and his army's way.

While he was thinking this matter through he picked up a long metal piece of dowel, using it to push along one of the flat blocks laid out on the table-top map. It was the block that represented the 2nd squad and he had decided to send them in on the right flank on one of the SDIOA's outposts. That way it would cut off the dirt roads the organization had set up throughout the forest and thus prevent them from escaping towards the stargate. The last thing he needed was for any of the SDIOA's hired guns to escape to some other planet through the stargate.

Satisfied with the squad's new position he figured he should get to radioing them and telling them the new position he wished for them to take. However, before he could carry out such an action a familiar figure entered the tent, someone who he was pleased to see.

"Ah, Lukas, you're back," Roland said. Lukas Farber stepped into the tent, dressed in a grey-blue armour vest and plating on his arms and legs. His helmet was tucked under one arm while his assault rifle was slung around his shoulder. Lukas was devoted to the cause and an excellent soldier; hence the reason Roland had made him his aide. Ranks weren't too common amongst their army, although Roland had made Sarah Taylor a Captain and thus he had made Lukas a Major.

Lukas was in his late thirties with dark blonde hair cut into a buzz cut while having blue eyes to go with his Aryan look. He was German and this showed up when he spoke, his voice carrying a slight but refined accent.

"Anything I should know about?" Roland asked.

Lukas nodded, looking a little flustered. Roland could see the Major had the appearance of someone who had just run a fairly long way without stopping and he assumed that this was what Lukas had just done. After all, last time Roland had checked Lukas had been with one of the teams assaulting an SDIOA outpost. Perhaps they had finished up earlier than expected?

"Sir, one of those SGC soldiers was caught in the forest a few kilometres south from here," Lukas said, "I thought I would escort him straight here, since I figured you may want to speak with him."

Roland smiled, pleased that his most loyal soldier had possibly just given him a way out of this little dilemma concerning the arrival of SG-8. With a single live team member they could send him back with a "warning" whilst sealing the gate on this side.

"However, Captain Taylor's killed the other two," Lukas said. This was a fact that didn't surprise Roland at all, although he did find it a tad disappointing that a capable soldier like Captain Sarah Taylor had stooped to this level. She was reckless, to say the least, but she was also loyal to the extent that she would willingly give her life for the cause, as would Lukas.

"Anything else I should know about?" Roland asked, "for one thing, what's the status on the squads that were sent out to secure the few outposts remaining?"

Communication around here was at an all time low, a fact that Roland didn't like. They had been having trouble setting up an effective means of radio communication, finding that whatever was causing the energy signatures was also causing some heavy interference across the radio waves. It was almost impossible to make out what someone was saying to you over a radio, their voices almost drowned in static. Roland had had to resort to the ancient use of messengers to communicate with teams out of reach of effective radio communication. In a situation like the one Lukas had alerted Roland to he would have usually radioed in but unfortunately this wasn't much of an option, considering the poor quality of any radio transmission due to this strange interference. Roland hated being completely clueless as to how well his teams were doing but he couldn't do much about it: if he could somehow get rid of the interference he would.

"About seventy to eighty percent of the total amount of SDIOA outposts has been destroyed," Lukas said, "however, in most cases the personnel at each outpost managed to purge their computers of any useful information." Lukas sensed the annoyance in Roland's often straight and weary looking features and so tried his best to shed a better light on the situation. "We did manage to recover some items, although I'm sure most of the information we need is within the mountain complex." Lukas reached into one pocket and removed a USB flash drive, placing it on the table. Roland figured he would check up on it later, doubtful that it would actually contain any information that could help them in the long run.

"The documents mentioned something about the history of the local people here, sir," Lukas said, "a scientist at one of the outposts wrote a bunch of reports about why the Goa'uld may have brought the people here and why the aliens suddenly went up and left. I think you may find it interesting, sir."

Roland was curious now, seeing as Lukas seemed genuine with what he was saying. Regardless, Roland had no time to check up on what was on the USB now. He had far more pressing issues at hand.

"Any news on our progress with the synthetic soldiers?" Roland asked, referring to a number of "back-up" units they had brought along with them. Roland's army, at a rough estimate, may have measured up to about three hundred trained soldiers. These back-up synthetic units doubled that amount but none of them worked yet, leaving only the organic human soldiers to carry out the operation.

Roland had many resources and an alien factory was one of them. Before he had started his crusade against the SDIOA, Roland had spent some months searching for a possible base of operations using files given to him from the SGC. He had found an abandoned alien factory that had been churning out dozens of synthetic biped soldiers for a long time. It had long since stopped functioning when he had found it but with some power generators and a basic knowledge of computers it hadn't taken much to get it running again, this time churning out a whole load of soldiers that would follow Roland's orders and only his orders. It had all to do with the alien device he had stowed away in his trouser pocket, the "remote control" if one wanted to call it that. It emitted a unique signal that the soldiers would apparently detect and associate with the one giving orders. As with all new discoveries in technology it took a while to get them working and so the soldiers lay dormant, loaded up on container trucks that were parked around the base camp while the human soldiers went about their own business.

"One of our engineers thinks he may have found the problem," Lukas said, "Apparently there's an alien device inside the head of each of the synthetics that emits a warning if they're tampered with and shuts them all down. Since we pretty much tampered with the factory in order to create the soldiers we wanted it's pretty much turned them all of since it knows we're not the original builders."  
Roland nodded, only a little dismayed but otherwise quite confident that they could find a way around it. This alien factory had been full of seemingly incomprehensible technology save for the workings of the factory. It had taken a few months to figure out how things worked and they had managed to create a few hundred of these synthetic soldiers, giving them human appearances. They were all clad in dark armour and had no inch of flesh showing, seeing as the armour was actually part of them. They were machines and Roland was intent on using them against his enemies.

"He thinks he could organize a sort of targeted pulse to disable it," Lukas continued, "but such a thing would take time to set up and carry out."

Roland nodded, understanding entirely.

"How long then?"

"Probably about another twenty-four hours according to the engineer," Lukas replied.

Roland, satisfied with the matter, decided to turn to something just as important. The synthetic soldiers could wait, seeing as the regular human ones seemed to have things under control.

"What about this SGC team member you found?" Roland asked, "Where is he?"

"I'll bring him in, sir," Lukas said, "although I doubt you'll get much out of him. He has no idea who we are and why we're here. He's probably going to ask more questions than you."

"Just bring him in," Roland insisted and Lukas nodded, heading back out of the tent and outside. When he came back in, Roland was suitably surprised by the man in the SG-8 uniform that followed him. He looked annoyed, with his hands tied behind his back while Lukas forced him along with the butt of his assault rifle. Roland saw the rank and insignia on the man's uniform and spoke accordingly. He wasn't a believer in interrogation and as such had no plans to torture this man for what he knew. Rather, he was planning on sending him straight back to where he had come from but bearing a rather noticeable "warning".

"Good afternoon, Colonel," Roland said, "it seems you and your team have stumbled across my operation here." The Colonel simply looked at him with some dislike and slight confusion.

"And who the hell are you?" He asked, his gruff voice betraying his uncertainty.

"My name is Roland Halverson," Roland replied, "and I'm in charge here. In the best interests of you, myself and my benefactors I think it would be best to send you straight back through the stargate. Unless you have other ideas…"

The Colonel eyed him cautiously, distrustful of this seemingly gentle man in the armoured vest. Roland could understand the uncertainty, seeing as the Colonel and his team hadn't been expecting to find a full-fledged military operation on this world.

"Where's the rest of my team?" He asked, frowning, "because, if any harm has come to them…"

"They are fine for now," Roland lied, knowing full well that the opposite was very likely the case. One of them was already dead whilst the other two were probably being hunted down like animals by Captain Sarah Taylor. However, the Colonel didn't need to know about all of this otherwise it might cause trouble.

"You and your team have brought an otherwise unneeded complication to this operation," Roland said, "and so, in order to prevent further disruption of my work here, I'm willing to send you back through the stargate."

"With my team?" The Colonel was probably thinking of going back and getting reinforcements from the SGC. Roland would ensure this wouldn't happen once they found the time to seal the planet's stargate.

"With your team," Roland said, gesturing towards a vacant seat at the other side of the table, "so please, Colonel, sit down and we can talk this out like civilized gentlemen. Trust me, you'll like it better if we do it that way."

Reluctantly, the Colonel sat down. And unknowingly to him, he was falling right into Roland's scheme. Of course, Roland kept his business-like but gentle demeanour on but knew that deep down that this problem with SG-8 would be removed within hours. A good outcome, considering what had happened so far. There was still the risk of the Colonel aware of the operation here and telling his superiors but Roland would ensure they would be able to do little abut it. Now, though, they had to talk and Roland would make it clear to the Colonel that return visits to this planet would be unacceptable. For the Colonel's sake Roland hoped he would listen.


	6. Target Practice

**Chapter Five: Target Practice  
**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex

On sublevel twenty-four of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex were a few support facilities for the SGC, including the MALP garage where both MALP vehicles (Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe in full) and UAV planes (Unmanned Airborne Vehicle) were stored and maintained, often recovered from worlds where they had been deployed. There was no use leaving about five million dollars worth of high-tech military equipment behind on some faraway planet so such devices were recovered whenever possible.  
As well as the MALP garage there was the firing range where anyone who worked in the stargate program could come down and hone their shooting skills in the event that they ever got into a combat situation. It was sued mostly by the members of SG teams seeing as they were the ones going to faraway worlds and possibly encountering hostile races. Shooting was an essential skill for all SG team members to improve and work upon. The shooting range was often in use by a number of people and so upon entry it was possible for one to become quite surprised by the sheer volume of the gunfire that occurred inside. The vast expanse of a room simply made the shots echo, giving people reason to wear military grade ear-muffs to deaden the noise and possible damage to one's hearing.

The range itself was about fifty metres long, the standard distance one could expect to become engaged in close combat. There were about fifteen booths, each one getting their own segment of the firing range to work on. Cardboard targets shaped in the silhouette of an adult male human hung on rails on the low ceiling, able to be brought closer or farther away depending on one's preference. Cabinets lined the walls behind the booths, locked and accessible if someone had been assigned with a key to access the cache of armaments inside. Of course, it was possible for someone to bring in their own weapons but for good reason the amount of guns kept in the SGC was strictly controlled and stored. Only human weapons were available in the firing range, all of the Goa'uld weapons having been stored away in one of the many armouries located throughout the SGC.

An excellent way to feel better before a potentially dangerous mission was to go out on the firing range and practice one's shooting skills. This helped get rid of those nerves one may have before heading out onto the field, although Colonel Jack O'Neill prided himself on the fact that very rarely did he ever get nervous about a mission. Sure, SG-8 still hadn't come back into contact and that meant SG-1 would be going to find them and that also meant that SG-8 was in trouble. However, Jack still felt fine about going on the mission, more than a little curious to find out what happened to SG-8 in order for them to go missing for over two days. He wasn't nervous about the whole fact the team had gone missing and besides, he had nothing better to do here anyway.

Travelling through the stargate was always capable of bringing surprises and he had been surprised many times by what he had found on the other side. It certainly beat hanging around here at the SGC with nothing much to do except eat and go out onto the firing range. His next full day off wasn't for another week so until then he would have to remain here, going to briefings, writing reports and probably travelling through the stargate on more than one occasion.

He also prided himself on the fact that he could shoot straight. This made going to the firing range all the more rewarding since it gave him a chance to show-off to anyone who cared enough to take any notice. He had been commended on his shooting abilities many times and had handled his fair share of weapons, from standard-issue machine guns to Goa'uld zat'ni'katels.

Another thing he was pleased with was the obvious fact that the new girl, First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine, seemed to have a thing for him. By "thing" he meant liking for him, noticing that whenever she was around him she seemed a little nervous. He had first noticed it when they had first met in the briefing room, taking note of the way she looked at him while acting towards the others differently. Perhaps she saw Carter as competition? If so, things just kept getting better and better.

Jack stood by one of the cabinets, having opened it to remove one of the many submachine guns stored inside. Teal'c stood in a booth on the firing range nearby, taking the time to practice his Tauri weapon wielding skills. The Jaffa could often be found here, honing his skills with the Earth weapons he had at first been unfamiliar with but had gradually practised and practised with, becoming an excellent marksman in the process. He was a capable soldier and able to adapt to anything, one of the many abilities a soldier like him had to have.

Jack removed one of the standard-issue MP5 submachine guns from within the cabinet, taking the time to load a full magazine into it and switch off the safety. The MP5 was standard-issue to all SG teams due to its lightweight, portability and apparent effectiveness against hostile forces. Of course, the latter point was the most debated seeing as standard 9mm rounds had trouble penetrating Jaffa armour, most of the rounds simply bouncing right off. Perhaps it was time for a change to something a little more effective, although Jack wasn't in control of what guns they were given and what guns they weren't given.

As if to add a bit more doubt onto the effectiveness of an SG team's arsenal, most members were given a standard 9mm Beretta 92F pistol as a sidearm. These used the same ammunition as the MP5 and had even more trouble penetrating Jaffa armour, a fact that Teal'c and Carter had taken onboard by instead carrying a zat'ni'katel in place of the Beretta. Jack wasn't too much a fan of that snake-sized weapon that had the habit of disintegrating someone if you shot them once too many but it was good in a pinch.

Teal'c stood in the booth with a Beretta pistol raised, taking careful aim at the target down the range and firing a number of shots towards it. He had been doubtful about the effectiveness of the weapons of the Tauri at first, but the more someone used them the more reliable they seemed. Of course, Teal'c refused to wear ear-muffs, a fact that no one argued with him about.

Jack approached the Jaffa from behind, waiting for him to start reloading before speaking. There was a fact that Jack had been curious about for a while now and perhaps Teal'c would know the answer. It was just that Jack had to say it in a way that Teal'c didn't find offensive.

"So, uh, Teal'c…" Jack said, Teal'c slowly turning around to face him. He had his usual serious look on his face, the one that Jack had seen so many times before. Teal'c very rarely smiled and when he did it was often a very badly done smile.

"Yes, O'Neill?"

"Well, I was just wondering: why can't most Jaffa shoot straight?" Jack looked towards Teal'c, satisfied that he had gone out and asked it. It was no unknown fact that most of the Jaffa that the team had encountered so far seemed to have trouble shooting accurately, a fact that no one had really bothered to mention until now. It was all the better if the enemy had trouble shooting, that way combat would be less dangerous. Jack was just curious about it, whether or not this bad aim was universal among the Jaffa.

"Not that I'm saying _you_ can't shoot," Jack added, although Teal'c still had the serious and straight-faced expression on. If Teal'c was offended he certainly wasn't showing it. Then again, it would take a lot to annoy someone like Teal'c.

"There is good reason, O'Neill," Teal'c finally replied, "it is to do with the weapons the Jaffa in question uses. Why do you think most choose the staff weapon over the zat'ni'katel?"

Jack thought about this for a moment. Why indeed?

"Because it's cooler?" Jack asked, shrugging, "otherwise I don't know why. Nor do I really care, but that's something else entirely…"

"The staff weapon is capable of striking fear into most less-advanced opponents," Teal'c replied, "however; I am not sure what you mean by 'cooler'. Has it something to do with the temperature of the weapons in question?"

Jack rolled his eyes. Teal'c could be like this sometimes, especially if you used a figure of speech he didn't quite understand.

"Just continue with your answer, Teal'c," Jack said.

Teal'c nodded and continued in his usual serious sounding tone of voice, the sort of voice that told others he didn't have much in the way of a sense of humour.

"The staff weapon does not require perfect aim," Teal'c said, "it was built to strike fear into opponents, thus it does not matter if a Jaffa's aim is poor."

"You're an exception to that, Teal'c," Jack said, slapping the Jaffa on the shoulder in a friendly manner. Teal'c remained straight-faced, unsure of what Jack was trying to do.

"A First Prime must have good aiming abilities," Teal'c said.

That made sense, seeing as Teal'c had once been First Prime of Apophis. A high-ranking position like that would need someone with the skills to suit the role and Teal'c seemed the type to spend hours on the target range honing his abilities.

While Jack was thinking this brief conversation over, he and Teal'c were suitably surprised to see a familiar female figure enter the firing range. She carried with her under one arm a small silver metal case and had recently changed into a standard green SGC BDU (Battle Dress Uniform). It was Katelyn and she was looking her usual confident self, seeing Jack and Teal'c and walking over.

Jack could see that look in her eyes again but tried his best to ignore it, preferring to concentrate on what he had come in here for. That had been to shoot and shoot he would, gathering up his MP5 and proceeding to put a set of yellow military-grade ear-muffs around his head.

"Hi Jack," Katelyn said before he had a chance to take aim at the cardboard target down range. He glanced at her, acknowledging her presence.

"Afternoon, Teal'c," she said, turning towards him. Teal'c nodded in acknowledgment.

Katelyn stepped up to the booth to Jack's right, setting the small silver metal case down on the bench in front of her. She looked towards Jack for a moment, watching as the Colonel emptied a few rounds from his MP5 towards the cardboard target down the range. She seemed curious to see how well he performed, keeping her eyes set on the target as several small holes were torn through it.

"So Jack," Katelyn said once he stopped shooting, "tell me more about yourself. You know, since you seemed so curious to know more about me back in the cafeteria…"

Jack took off the earmuffs and laid his MP5 down on the bench in front of him, turning to face the Lieutenant. He had expected her to ask him sometime and so wasn't surprised with her curiosity about him, especially since she seemed to like him. However, Jack wasn't sure what he should say and where he should start on so he just decided to pull the modesty card.

"There's not a lot to me," he said simply, "why? Didn't you read enough about me in the file?"

"That didn't stop you from asking," Katelyn replied bluntly, "so, anything I should know about the great Colonel Jack O'Neill? Or is the file the extent of it?"

"Yeah, that was pretty much the extent of it," Jack said, sounding a little smug, "although, to change the subject a little, you mentioned earlier while back during our talk in the briefing room about whether or not I'm going to lay down some rules."

Katelyn raised an eyebrow in a disapproving fashion, as if she wasn't looking forward to whatever the Colonel was going to say next.

"Well, seeing as you're the new girl and you're not in with the whole stargate thing I am going to lay down some rules."

"Go ahead, Colonel," Katelyn said, frowning, "it's not like I won't listen to them."

"Good," Jack replied, "so just listen to me: you endanger any of the other team members at any point in time, whether you're being reckless or insubordinate and I will make sure you don't end up getting that promotion of yours. Sound simple enough?"

"I can tell you just made that up on the spot," Katelyn replied, seeing right through Jack's charade, "you just want me to feel inferior, seeing as I'm new here."

That had been about the extent of it. Jack shrugged, almost innocently, before continuing.

"Well, you are new here," he said, "and you are open to exploitation since you'll be trying to impress the head honchos during the missions you're with us for. As well as that, I can see that you like me."

Katelyn looked taken aback by this remark but also a little flushed as well, trying her best to hide her feelings by keeping on a tough-girl demeanour. Jack could see he was right though.

"I figure you don't like Captain Carter much since she's the only competition in the team," Jack said.

"Have you and Carter ever…done anything?" Katelyn asked, "Because if you're into her more I'll understand…"  
Jack shook his head.

"I've never done anything with a fellow member of the Air Force in the way you're implying," Jack said, "and that means the same goes for you. Besides, we only just met. I'm out of your league."

Katelyn didn't answer to this, instead she gave it a moment's thought but otherwise let the Colonel keep talking.

He was surprised that someone like her would even be able to "like" him. They had just met and already she seemed to have fallen for him, a fact that made Jack feel better about himself but also a little uncertain. It was obvious the attraction he thought she had for him was there, she just wasn't the type to directly admit it.

"No one's out my league, Colonel," she said simply, "although I understand if you don't like me. I am the new girl, after all."

"Yeah, you are the new girl," Jack said although he suddenly found himself at a loss for words. It took him a moment to think of something else to add, realizing that Katelyn had more or less asked him what he thought of her. They had only just met and Jack was long over "love at first sight". To be honest, he didn't think the attraction was shared.

"And you're meant to be a good soldier, according to what I've read in your file," Jack said, "but I'm afraid I can't let myself get distracted by the opposite sex in my line of work. Besides, policy sort of disallows fraternization."

Katelyn nodded, although he could tell she wasn't too happy with his decision to not pursue the obvious liking he had for her. Jack didn't care too much, he had met plenty of girls and he had had plenty of relationships. And he wasn't too interested in Katelyn, regardless of how striking she looked.

"What's in that box of yours, Lieutenant?" He asked, nodding towards the metal case that Katelyn had placed on the bench in front of her. She looked towards it and then back at Jack.

"Just a little something I brought in with me," Katelyn said, reaching down and flicking open the pair of latches on the front side, "it just got cleared for entry into the base."

"What is it?" Jack had the feeling he had a good idea of what the Lieutenant had in that case but asked anyway, curious to see what it was. It would make better conversation than her asking him whether he liked her or not, a question he still wasn't sure about himself.

Katelyn pulled up the top part of the case, revealing what was inside. It looked to be a fairly large, bulky handgun with a silver chrome finish and pearl-handle. Jack was surprised to see the Lieutenant carrying around such a pretty looking gun but then again it was the sort of thing to be expected from someone like her.

"A Colt 1911," she replied, taking the weapon out of the case and weighing it in her right hand, "it's bulky and obsolete. It's more of a collector's item than anything else."

"Oh, is it?" Jack wasn't sure what he should say, seeing as he was potentially dealing with a gun fanatic. The Lieutenant smiled at him as she removed the magazine from the weapon and began loading .45 ACP rounds into the magazine one at a time. Such ammunition was common in a military base like this so she would have no trouble finding rounds for her prize looking weapon to fire.

"It is quite a striking looking weapon," Teal'c said from behind Jack. Teal'c was the kind of person who would comment on the beauty of a gun while Jack was a little less on the gun-nut side of things. How expensive would that Colt pistol be now anyway? It would probably gain a small fortune on eBay.

"Thanks, Teal'c," Katelyn said, finishing loading the eight rounds into the Colt pistol's magazine. She slid the magazine back into the bottom of the weapon's handle, pulling the slider back as she proceeded to go ahead and start shooting.

"You aren't seriously considering on bringing that antique with you on the mission?" Jack asked, unable to see why such an outdated weapon would be of any use, "because I think that would be asking for trouble when we get into a combat situation. The thing might jam or mightn't even penetrate the standard armour of a Jaffa…"

Katelyn looked at him, not at all concerned about these things. She didn't seem to be really taking into account any of the sensible things he was saying, simply looking at him in a way which told him that she thought he was too cynical.

"This thing's more effective than those pea-shooters you get given as side-arms," she said, gesturing towards the Beretta pistol he had laid out on the bench in front of him.

"Is it really?" Jack was being sarcastic of course and picked up the Beretta, weighing the lightweight pistol in his hands and looking towards the cardboard target downrange. Sure, the Beretta wasn't all that special but he was certain it was better than Katelyn's antique.

"So, how good do you think you are at firing that thing?" Katelyn asked, this being an obvious invitation to a competition. Jack would never turn down an opportunity to display his superior shooting skills.

"I'm pretty good, even if I say so myself," he said. Katelyn looked sceptical, obviously thinking that she was the better marksman. In order to prove her otherwise Jack would probably need to show her and so, putting the military-grade orange earmuffs over his ears he raised the Beretta pistol and took aim.

Katelyn and Teal'c watched on as he fired several rounds, each crack of gunfire echoing throughout the firing range. The gun bucked back in his grip slightly but he made sure to adjust his aim each time, keeping a straight face as he emptied about eight rounds into the cardboard target downrange. When he was satisfied with his result he lowered the pistol and turned to the panel to his left, holding down a switch which gradually drew the hanging target closer and closer so they could get a better look.

Jack was quite satisfied with the result, able to see the eight bullet holes grouped close together in the target's "head' section. He turned to Katelyn, unable to help but smile broadly at his own excellent shooting skills.

"How's that for you, Lieutenant?" He asked, boastful, "I mean, you have to admit, that's pretty good…"

Katelyn looked completely unfazed, simply nodding along to what the Colonel was saying. Her unimpressed demeanour simply annoyed Jack and he quit boasting and quickly lost his smile.

"Ah, come on Lieutenant, you know I'm good," he said. Katelyn shrugged, putting a pair of the earmuffs over her ears and raising the Colt pistol. She took aim towards the target downrange, a slight smirk on her face as she began firing.

The gun was load, with a booming shot that echoed right through the firing range. Each shot send the pistol recoiling heavily but she controlled it each time, firing eight shots in quick succession while Jack and Teal'c watched on.

When she had emptied the eight-round magazine she lowered the pistol and took off the earmuffs, the smirk still on her face even as she held down the switch to bring the hanging cardboard target closer. Jack watched with a lack of expectation, certain that a young and cocky soldier such as her wouldn't be able to match a veteran's shooting skills. He was surprised when she grabbed the target off of where it hung, looked at it briefly while keeping it just out of Jack's view before turning around and showing it to him.

Jack looked at the holes and saw that they formed an almost perfect circle within the head section of the cardboard target. She had done this on purpose, it seemed, taking the care to form a circle and put Jack's somewhat scattered headshots to shame. Jack was momentarily speechless, unable to quite work out how some young cocky soldier such as her could possibly better than him, someone who had been in the military for most of his life.

"How do you like that, Jack?" She asked while making sure the words "that" and "Jack" rhymed quite well. The Colonel shrugged, trying to work out what he should say. Teal'c ended up speaking before him though and it wasn't something Jack really wanted to hear.

"It seems the Lieutenant has superior shooting skills when compared to yours, O'Neill," he said in his rather blunt and serious manner. Jack managed a false smile, glancing at Teal'c and nodding.

"Yeah, uh, thanks for the encouragement, Teal'c," he said. Teal'c simply raised an eyebrow, unsure of what the Colonel was getting at by saying this.

Katelyn hung the cardboard sheet back up, a smug grin on her face. It was the type of grin that annoyed Jack but he couldn't figure out what he should say to it.

"Well, uh…I'm having a bad day," Jack said weakly, although he knew it would take some practice to match Katelyn's somewhat uncanny skill with a sidearm. How far had that target been? Twenty, perhaps thirty metres away? Most pistols had a maximum accuracy range of about twenty metres, having been designed more for close quarters combat than anything else.

"Whatever Jack," Katelyn said simply, putting the pistol back into the case. She seemed too smug for his liking but he couldn't really think of what he should do about it, although he was quite intent on showing the Lieutenant that he was better than her.

That was when he realized just how stupid this was getting. Why did it matter if he was better than her or not? Perhaps it was just the effect this woman had on him or the fact that she was the new girl and no new girl should be better than the veteran squad leader. Whatever it was it annoyed Jack even though he knew he shouldn't be so annoyed about it.

"My father gave me this weapon," she said, changing the subject by gesturing towards the fancy-looking Colt pistol that she had placed back into the case, "while my grandfather modified it from the original Colt he had gotten hold of during the Second World War. It's a sort of family heirloom, you know?"

Jack nodded, not too concerned about the weapon's origins. He did have the feeling that Katelyn was going to be a decent enough asset to the team, seeing as she had the skills. No wonder her father had wanted her to become part of the SGC: she was probably too good for anything else.

"Yeah, I understand," Jack said, playing along with what she was saying.

Katelyn closed the case and looked around, trying to work out what she should do next.

"SG-8 still hasn't come back into contact yet," she said, "so as far as I know, we're going to P5H-734. Bit of a surprise, coming here for my first day on the job only to be sent off to some faraway planet."

"Life here in the SGC can be unpredictable sometimes," Jack said. He sneezed into his sleeve, remembering that he still had a cold and probably would still have it for a few days to come.

"Yeah, but I guess that just means less time to wait before I get to go through the stargate for my first time," she said, "I sort of can't wait, you know. Although I doubt it's that exciting…"

"Depends on what's on the other side," Jack replied, before adding, "it always depends on what you find on the other side."

Katelyn nodded. This was a view Jack had formed over his two years at the SGC and numerous trips through the stargate and it was a view that he knew would never change. No matter how many trips you took through the stargate, it always mattered on what was on the other side. That was the factor that made all the difference.


	7. The Return of SG8

**Another Interlude: The Return of SG-8 (in a sense)**

**Location: **P5H-734

**Stargate Coordinates:** 21, 20, 15, 39, 32, 27/Point of origin: 13

It wasn't so much as raining as it was spitting despite the fact the clouds above were grey and ominous. An overly loud clap of thunder rumbled in the distance while a cool breeze billowed through the rainforest, the leaves of the trees and bushes rattling as it went. The smell of moisture was quite thick, implying that heavy rain was only hours away.

Sarah Taylor stood atop a ridge, a pair of military-grade binoculars at her eyes as she gazed across the clearing ahead. Set near the centre of the clearing was the planet's stargate, overgrown with weeds and dirtied with the dirt and dust of ages. About fifteen metres in front of it was the Dial Home Device, the ancient circular pedestal with two rings of thirty-nine symbols on pads that would light up when pressed. In the centre of it was a red hemisphere which acted as the activation button, switching on the stargate when an address had been dialled.

It was these two objects that Sarah was keeping an eye on. She could see the bullet-ridden camp tent she and her squad had shot up earlier to the right of the stargate while an armoured grey-blue SUV was parked just behind her. She was right on the edge of where the forest met the clearing and stood in knee-high grass, an assault rifle slung over one shoulder.

Sarah was twenty-five and had self-titled herself as "Captain", seeing as she had been put in charge of a bunch of Roland Halverson's best soldiers. She had young but quite striking features and at first glance seemed like a fairly innocent young woman. Her blonde hair was tied back into a wide ponytail that hung just behind her head. Her innocent look was betrayed by the crazy fire that burned in her eyes and the fact that she was dressed in grey-blue body-fitting armour plating save for her head.

There were no proper ranks within Roland's army but Sarah had gotten the message across that she wanted to be a "Captain". As a result, everyone called her that now. She had the skills to go with such a rank as well, being a very capable and efficient soldier. This may explain why Roland valued her in his army greatly and that if he wanted something done he would get her to do it.

Sarah had been in the United States military for about two years before she had been dishonourably discharged for striking a superior officer. Her superiors had seen the potential in her but the reckless nature that went with it, always having been wary of her and warned that she may be more trouble than her worth. She had proven this when she had almost beaten to death her commanding officer since he had "harassed" her. There was no proof to this claim however and that officer was still serving.

As a result of her discharge Sarah had gone on to wander from one place to the next, becoming a mercenary of sorts. She took on a job when the pay was good and if it was dangerous enough for her, always having been the type that enjoyed the dangerous assignments. That would explain why she was here on this faraway world, attempting to track down two intruders that had stupidly found their way to Roland's base camp.

Sarah had come across Roland during her time staying in Brazil while looking for work. He had appeared to her as an able businessman, inviting her to a meeting with several other potential candidates for service in his private militia. Sarah had been doubtful of his legitimacy and even considered leaving this man to his dreams when he had given her documents relating to something called a "stargate" and plans to travel to some other planets. Of course, Roland had seen the potential in her and taken her to where they had kept something called the "secondary gate", locked away in a warehouse on one of the most secure land sites in the United States. Roland had contacts within those who guarded the apparently mystical device and they had allowed him entry without any trouble. He had shown her its capabilities and had even taken her to another planet to top things off. At the time that stargate had had a permanent metal shield welded to it but Roland had arranged to have that removed so he could ship his men and equipment to an off-world base, the shield being welded back on once he was done.

Sarah had been placed in charge of Roland's better soldiers, at first having been looked at by them with ridicule until she had promptly broken the neck of the more annoying one. This had quickly showed them who was in control and they now loyally followed her every last order.

Sarah had even been made to swear an oath of loyalty to the "righteous cause" that Roland was pursuing. The most she could gather was that it had something to do with an organization called the SDIOA and that it was his own personal retribution as well as part of a much bigger plan organized by the powers that be. Sarah cared little for the politics involved, instead simply going along with it all just because she was being paid a heck of a lot of money for every job she did for Roland. She went along the philosophy of "As long as the pay's good, I'm in."

Sarah, in her early days working for Roland, had been her usual reckless self, often going ahead and disobeying orders. Roland, being the patient type, had started to slowly gain more control over her a fact that she sort of resented but sort of welcomed as well. It had its advantages and disadvantages but she could see that she was becoming a much more capable fighter with these new temper control philosophies. Rather than kill the person who pissed her off she would try and calm herself.

Occasionally she simply thought _"to hell with that"_ and reverted back to her old ways of killing and beating up those who got in her way. Today was no exception to this rule, knowing full well that her boss wanted her to take these two intruders alive for his own purposes. Of course, Sarah didn't think such a thing was necessary, having already killed one of them. Another had been brought back to the base camp by that sissy Lukas Farber while the other two were still on the run and had been for hours, going around in circles throughout the forested valley in order to confuse their pursuers.

Sarah didn't fool easily. While she had sent her squad off in different directions in order to cover more ground she had stayed here, keeping watch on the stargate while catching the odd report over the radio. Interference was bad in these parts and so the radios weren't of much use, more or less cutting her off from the rest of her squad. When one was isolated they could do what they want and so Sarah had decided to kill both of these intruders when they showed up, just for the fun of it. She doubted anyone of her squad members would apprehend them, seeing as her squad was full of morons.

These two intruders were apparently members of one of the fabled SG teams, the types of people Roland had told her to be on the lookout for. Apparently they were capable of seriously screwing up Roland's carefully planned scheme, a fact that she didn't take lightly since if Roland's plan screwed up then her pay day would end up cancelled. She didn't want that, not at all.

These SG teams were the ones who operated Earth's primary stargate, according to Roland. While Roland had operated the Earth's secondary stargate, he had made sure to time the activations carefully as to not be detected by the SGC. Roland had always been the careful type although Sarah had seen plenty of his type screw up eventually. Everybody did sometime, although some screw-ups were less major than others.

Sarah clipped her binoculars back to her waist, able to tell that these two SG team members weren't going to show up anytime soon. However, she was willing to wait for as long as it took just so she could get a kill or two. She had thoroughly enjoyed slaughtering the SDIOA personnel in the mountain base and in a few of their outposts but once that had all but finished she had been stuck with nothing to shoot at. Roland had denied all of her requests for an expedition to the local settlement and so Sarah had been hanging around, itching to shoot something. So, when the chance came to chase down a few unwanted visitors she took it right away. She was an opportunist as well as a sociopathic mercenary, a fact she prided herself on.

That was when the radio at her shoulder hissed into life, the signal full of static. Even for such an advanced looking piece of equipment it was struggling to broadcast the heavy interference that originated from the many mysterious energy signatures in the area, making conventional radio communication an almost impossible thing here.

"…_Heading east—aight to—tain—get them…"_

Sarah recognized it as the voice of one of her squad mates, the one she had sent to guard the eastern approach into the clearing. From what she could tell out of the broken message her squad-mate was alerting her to the fact that someone, very likely one of SG team members, was heading her way. She smiled, realizing that things were about to get very interesting and very satisfying.

"…_can't—atch—em…Get—em, Cap…"_

Sarah took up her binoculars again, this time directing her view towards the clearing's eastern approach. For a moment she could make out nothing of interest except the trees and undergrowth there, feeling a little disappointed at this fact. She was hoping they were coming; otherwise she would have to stay out her for even longer until they did show up. She knew they were going to come sooner or later, seeing as the stargate was the only means of getting off of this world.

That was when she saw the movement she had been waiting for, watching as a pair of men clad in forest camouflage uniforms came charging out of the forest. They looked dirtied and frantic, fear on their faces as they came sprinting down the ridge and towards the clearing. A short distance behind them came Sarah's squad-mate, fully clad in his standard issue grey-blue armour suit although his posture suggested he was tired from the chase.

_Goddamn unfit bastard,_ Sarah thought to herself. She really needed some better team members, a fact that she had thought about for quite some time. With all the many interesting things that came with her new job as one of Roland's best soldiers, she found that all the high-tech gear they received was one of them. They all had access to full suits of close-fitting body armour, allowing ease of movement and an excellent level of protection. Their weapons were like nothing she had ever seen but had grown accustomed to using, finding they were simply more like futuristic versions of today's weapons.

She lowered the binoculars, taking her assault rifle from around her shoulder. It was a fairly lightweight weapon for its size, fitted with a drum magazine of forty-five rounds and a laser-sighted scope on top. A foldable bipod was under the tip of the barrel and allowed for more stabilized aiming if needed. The weapon itself had a sleek, grey-black look to it as if it had just come off of the manufacturing line. By far the best thing about it though was the ammunition it used. The rounds were capable of shooting through most armour and were also quite capable of setting someone alight, seeing as they were based upon the principle of a tracer round.

Sarah put the rifle against her shoulder as she took aim, resting the barrel in her left hand as she gripped the trigger with her right. She peered through the scope, being sure to zoom in on the pair of running men who were sprinting their way across the clearing and towards the stargate. Her squad-mate was still on the ridge, firing his assault rifle but missing with a wide margin. Sarah rolled her eyes at his lack of shooting skill.

_If you want something done right you have to do it yourself._

She had been hoping that it would come to this, with her being the only one with the chance of killing these two intruders. She watched them through her scope as they sprinted through the long grass, almost stumbling as they went. She would wait for the perfect opportunity to shoot and so this meant letting them run a bit while her squad-mate took pot-shots at them.

Sarah watched as the first one raced for the stargate's Dial Home Device (or DHD for short). He began to dial while his buddy waited by the gate, a small transmitter device in his hand as he awaited the portal's activation. Sarah watched as the stargate's inner ring began to spin and the chevrons began to lock. Her squad-mate was waving at her, yelling at her to start shooting although at that distance his words were barely audible.

_Things like this are not meant to be rushed._

She shook her head at her squad-mate's sheer incapableness and took a deep breath, taking aim at the one using the DHD. She fired, the rifle's suppressor coughed and it jumped back in her grip only slightly. With some satisfaction she watched part of the man's head disappear in a red spray, just as his hand met the red dome in the centre of the DHD. The stargate activated, sending forth a column of blue water-like energy which jumped back into the ring and stabilized into the water-like event horizon. The man she had shot slumped against the DHD before sliding off it and hitting the ground.

The other SG team member began to dial something into the transmitter device. Sarah took aim through the scope just as he started to race up the stone steps and towards the stargate's event horizon, firing as he reached it.

_Perhaps a little too late_, she thought absently. It didn't really matter, since she watched as the man stumbled backwards, blood erupting from his neck. He stepped through the event horizon and was consumed by the rippling vortex. Sarah lowered her rifle, a look of satisfaction on her face as she contemplated on what she had just done.

_Two down, _she thought, _and probably more to come_. She figured those people at the SGC was planning on sending more of their own to find out what happened to their last team. If that did happen she knew exactly what she would do to them.

The event horizon within the stargate disappeared into nothing, leaving empty space where it had once been. The orange lights in the chevrons switched off and the clearing was silent once again, the glowing characters on the DHD fading away as it reverted back to its usual dormant state.

Her radio hissed into life again, the voice a little clearer this time due to the proximity of the one speaking to her. It was her incapable squad-mate again, the last person she really wanted to be hearing from right now.

"_You let him get through! How—ld—you?"_

Sarah didn't reply. Rather, she took a moment to consider the usefulness of this particular squad-mate. His name, if she remembered correctly, was Domingo Rodriguez, some Hispanic guy she had been stuck with since her first day working with Roland Halverson. He was perhaps one of the least capable of her idiot filled squad and also the more annoying.

Sarah raised her rifle again, took careful aim and fired. There was no loud gunshot thanks to the suppressor (such loud noise tended to hurt her ears) although the bullet did find its mark, hitting Rodriguez in his helmet right between the eyes. The helmets weren't built to sustain much damage, especially from such a high-powered weapon so as a result Rodriguez was killed instantly as the round smashed through his helmet, went through his skull and exploded out of the other side. From where she stood it looked like he had been pushed to one side, pivoting slightly where he stood before falling and stumbling down the ridge. His falling corpse kicked up much dirt behind him before it came to rest a few metres after the base of the ridge, lying in the long grass in the clearing. Sarah lowered the rifle, again satisfied with the result she had achieved. One less annoying squad member for her to deal with.

* * *

Roland Halverson had been speaking with Colonel Richardson of SG-8 for the last twenty minutes, constantly having to remind the disgruntled Colonel that the rest of his squad was fine. This was in fact a rather incredible lie, seeing as of now all three other members of his team lay dead in one way or another. Roland only knew of the death of the young female Lieutenant who lay within the medical tent, having been shredded by heavy fire during a raid on SG-8's base camp site near the stargate by Sarah Taylor and her squad.

Roland and the Colonel were seated within the command tent at the base of the mountain where the SDIOA had their main facilities for this world. The Colonel had at first seemed untrustworthy and unsure of his predicament but Roland had made sure to come across as a rather welcoming host towards him. As such the Colonel had slowly eased into his surroundings, especially when Roland had offered him a coffee made with the machine positioned on the table in the corner of the tent.

For the last twenty minutes Roland had gone on to describe the "crusade" he and his army were engaging against the SDIOA and why they had come to this world. That was all Roland had been willing to share, seeing as telling this man too much could have a detrimental effect on his plans. Roland was planning on sending him back through the stargate before sealing it, knowing that the SGC would be dreadfully annoyed when they sent people through only for them to end up splattered on a shield in front of the portal. It would surprise them, to say the least.

Roland had been intentionally vague as a result of this plan, instead treating the Colonel to a few anecdotes that he came up with off the top of his head. All in all the Colonel appeared to be a nice enough man when you got to know him, Roland making it perfectly clear that he had no intention on harming him in any way. After all, the Colonel and his team had simply stumbled upon the operation here and thus would have had no idea what to do when they found that this world already had visitors from Earth on it.

Roland still had to make his message to the SGC clear, though: No more people would be permitted to this world and s any that did arrive would meet a much harsher fate than the Colonel here. He would have to make it clear to the people at the SGC that the stargate would be sealed if they tried going through it, in order to prevent any unnecessary "bug on a windshield" type deaths.

On the table where the map of the area had been laid out were all the Colonel's weapons and equipment. A lot of it was standard issue, including the MP5 submachine gun and Beretta pistol. However, there were one or two things that caught Roland's eye and also raised his curiosity. He picked one of them up, finding it to be the Colonel's personal GDO (Garage Door Opener). Sure, Roland knew what they were used for but he was still curious about something.

"So, Colonel, what is the code you use for this?" Roland asked, sounding as friendly as he could. He wasn't in a bad mood or anything, rather he was in his usual neutral state of mind that he was so used to being in. Roland was a man who didn't have much in the way of strong feelings at any one time.

"Uh…why would I tell you that?" The Colonel raised an eyebrow, as if he found Roland's question stupid. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

"Because I intend on keeping all of your equipment, including this," Roland replied, holding up the device to add emphasis on his point. He immediately saw the creases of worry cross the Colonel's face but Roland gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you will be going home. I will be with you at the stargate when you go. You will tell me your code and I will input it into this device, allowing you to pass through the stargate without ending up splattered on the iris that may be on the other side."

The Colonel still didn't look convinced. It was up to Roland to convince him otherwise, seeing as such a device as the GDO would benefit Roland's cause greatly. He didn't want to simply get rid of the Colonel, even though that would probably make matters simpler. Roland wasn't a monster, a fact that he prided himself on.

"Why do you want it?" The Colonel asked, still unsure of whether he could trust Roland.

"Because…I just do," Roland said, deciding he wouldn't be disclosing any detailed information to Colonel Richardson anytime soon. It would be best if the Colonel didn't know much about Roland's plans.

That was when Sarah Taylor walked in, looking pleased with herself. Her rifle was slung around her shoulder while her face beared a rather broad smirk, one that Roland had seen many times before. She was satisfied, probably having killed something. That could mean only one thing.

Roland had seen the potential in her, even before they had met. He had read up on potential candidates for his army and Sarah had been one who had caught his eye early on, having read through all records to do with her. She had been deemed "mentally unstable" upon her discharge from the military, a fact that seemed to make sense with her. The look in her eyes, the semi-crazed one, was there all the time. However, she was brilliant at what she did and for this reason Roland valued her services to his army. However, she did need some control and Roland had been working on doing this for some time.

The Colonel looked up, seeing her and frowning. He had no idea that this woman had been the one responsible for killing his squad-mates, a fact that made Roland realize that his plan to send the Colonel back safely was already in jeopardy by Sarah's presence.

"Ah, Sarah, you're back," Roland said, although he suddenly wasn't too keen on having her here. She was a good looking woman and young, full of life and eagerness that he hadn't felt himself for years. She was looking at him with her smug expression although she seemed a little perturbed by the Colonel's presence inside the tent.

"I got them both for you, Roland," she said, stepping forwards. The Colonel raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she could be referring to. Either that or he didn't want to contemplate the worst. Sarah shot him a curious look, telling him that she hadn't been expecting his presence here right now.

"You did?" Roland sounded a little surprised. He hadn't been expecting her to arrive back so quickly.

"Yeah, shot one right in the head," she replied, following this with the sound of a gunshot. She pointed her rifle and pretended to shoot, following this action with a smile.

Roland knew what he was referring to and turned to look towards the Colonel, able to see that he was quite disturbed by what she was implying. Roland decided it was best to try and start salvaging this situation while he could.

"Colonel Richardson, this is one of my best soldiers," Roland said, gesturing towards Sarah while trying to keep a straight face. Right now he had a rather large amount of rage building up inside him; able to see already that his carefully laid plans was going to get ruined.

"Her name's Sarah Taylor," he said. The Colonel seemed to ignore him, standing up and looking towards Sarah with some dislike. Roland could tell what he was thinking although the Colonel knew little of the situation he was in, with barely any idea of the full extent of Roland's operations here. He was probably having some trouble figuring out what Sarah was referring to.

"Please, Sarah, could you leave the Colonel and me alone?" Roland asked in a kind fashion, turning to look towards the young woman, "we're discussing an important matter…"

"He's one of them, isn't he?" She asked, pointing towards the Colonel with her rifle. The Colonel looked at the barrel that was pointed towards him with some surprise although he didn't seem to be worried about it. He had probably been trained to put up with having guns pointed at him.

"What do you mean, '_he's one of them_'?" The Colonel sounded offended at the remark, as if he had just tasted something unpleasant. "I'm the leader of SG-8 and I'm already having a bad day without needing to be insulted like that…"

"SG-8, huh?" Sarah took a step closer, her hand tightening around the handle of her rifle. The Colonel stood up, giving her a look that told her he didn't like her. He also seemed a little confused, as if still trying to figure out what she meant by having "got both of them". Roland realized he was on top of a potentially dangerous situation; one he could see would be hard to diffuse.

"Is that what you call yourselves?" She asked, her voice taking on a mocking tone, "not really imaginative, is it?"

The Colonel kept his increasing anger under control. Roland decided now was the best time to step in, although he was beginning to doubt he could do anything to stop what he could see would become a violent situation.

"Now, please Sarah, go outside until I'm done talking with the Colonel," Roland said to the woman, deciding to pull some of that Roland Halverson charm that she seemed to like. She looked at him with doubt and then the Colonel, seeming to go over her options in her mind.

"Why do you need him alive for, anyway?" Sarah asked, her intentions obvious, "his friends were easy to knock off. Why not finish the job and get rid of him?"

The Colonel seemed surprised to hear this. He turned to Roland, anger crossing his features as he realized what Sarah meant by her words.

"You told me my team was alive!" He shouted angrily. Roland stood his ground, simply swallowing his annoyance and looking the Colonel in the eyes.

"They're dead," Sarah said, replying for Roland even though this hadn't been what he had been planning on telling the Colonel, "and so are you." She pulled the trigger on her rifle, the suppressor emitting a faint puff of smoke and only a faint _cough!_ The Colonel stumbled backwards, clutching his throat as he gargled and struggled for air. Blood shot out of his bloodied neck in thin geysers with each heartbeat, spraying onto the map on the table. His one free hand grabbed for support as he slowly fell backwards, landing on a table by the wall of the tent and sending the papers and pens on its falling onto the floor. Roland watched with impassiveness, unable to help but feel sorry for the Colonel as he slumped off of the table and onto the floor.

The geysers of blood stopped when his heart stopped. Roland looked down at the Colonel's corpse and then towards Sarah who was standing still with a smirk on her face. Roland's eyes widened and for the first time in years he began to yell.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!" He shouted, Sarah giving him a rather surprised look. She ought to be surprised, seeing as Roland had just had one of his schemes ruined.

"I was going to send him back!" Roland continued, "after all, what did he do to deserve a death like that?"

Roland had intended for this to be a rhetorical question but surprisingly Sarah answered, speaking her mind as she often did. She slung her rifle around her shoulder as she spoke, giving the impression that it was "business as usual" for her.

"He came here," she said simply before turning around and leaving the tent.


	8. Fallen Through

**Chapter Six: Fallen Through**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colonel Jack O'Neill glanced at the digital watch he wore around his left wrist. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, hinting at how close it was coming to the scheduled departure to P5H-734 through the stargate. He wasn't looking forward to the rescue mission; at least he figured it would be a rescue mission: SG-8 had been out of contact for more than two days and it was about time someone went to check on them and see if they were indeed still alive.

Jack was primarily worried about the fact that SG-8 mightn't be alive when they got to P5H-734. He never liked seeing dead fellow soldiers, despite the fact he was meant to be hardened towards that sort of thing. Then again, he had also killed plenty of enemy soldiers in the past, perhaps something he wasn't too proud of but necessary in order to keep himself alive.

It made sense that Hammond had called all five of them to the briefing room, looking his usual serious self. He was planning on sending them through a little earlier, probably because it was safe to assume that SG-8 was in trouble. Jack was partially relieved to hear that they would be departing sooner, as well worried on what they might end up finding on P5H-734. From the documents he had read he had gathered that the region of the planet they would be journeying to was undergoing some sort of wet season, with heavy rain and thunderstorms being a common occurrence in the area. He doubted such an environment would help his cold much but he guessed he would just have to live with that if it meant having a chance of finding SG-8 alive.

Jack sat in his usual spot at the large table in the middle of the briefing room, with Daniel sitting on his right while Carter and Teal'c sat across from him. However, the new addition to their squad, First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine, had sat herself down on Jack's left. This further fuelled the thought in the Colonel's mind that she liked him, a fact he wasn't really keen on building on. He was still only slightly embarrassed about how she had done far better than him on the firing range but then again he was happy with his skills with a firearm, knowing that they would be more than enough when it came to a combat situation.

Hammond was sitting at the head of the table as usual, going on about his worries concerning the upcoming mission. He was concerned about SG-8, having good reason to since he would be the one having to notify the team member's families if they were killed. Such an act would be hard to do, a fact that Jack only knew too well.

So far the meeting had been going on for five minutes, with the whole team listening attentively to what it was General Hammond had to say. It wasn't anything surprising though, since they had all figured that it was an overdue occurrence.

"Colonel, I want you to prepare everyone in your team for a departure through the stargate," Hammond said, his tone serious, "I want you all on P5H-734 within the hour."

"So, you think SG-8's in trouble?" Katelyn asked, looking a little pleased with the fact that they would finally be going. She seemed the type who got excited on a possibly dangerous mission, something which Jack hoped wouldn't cloud her judgment while out in the field.

Hammond nodded and Jack could see in the old man's eyes just how dire he thought the situation was. Jack had never been the keen type when it came to a rescue mission since there was always that possibility that the people they were going to rescue were already dead. Not only did that leave a massive dent in morale, it also gave the impression that the trip had been in vain. However, it was a distinct possibility that he was aware of and so were the others.

"They've been out of contact long enough," the General replied, turning his attention towards the whole of the team. "We've got you all scheduled to leave within the hour. Right now though, we're planning on sending a UAV through to scout out farther than the immediate vicinity around the gate on the other side."

"In other words, the situation just got serious," Katelyn added, "and we're going on to find this missing team. Sounds simple enough, I guess."

Jack looked at her, finding that as usual she seemed rather pleased with herself. Obviously the idea of a rescue mission excited her and Jack was in no position to kill her enthusiastic mood. Carter, on the other hand, was definitely in the mood.

"Lieutenant, a team's gone missing and yet you look like you're going to jump into the ceiling with excitement," the Captain said with some obvious annoyance outlining her voice.

Katelyn was unperturbed by the obvious animosity that was between the two of them. Jack could tell Katelyn's presence was beginning to affect Carter, a fact he could only be amused about since he was sure what the animosity was being caused by. In other words, both women in the squad were fighting over him in their own secret way. Of course, neither were going to admit this to anyone.

"And what does that matter to you, Captain?" Katelyn asked, sounding a bit irritated at the sheer fact that Captain Carter was talking to her, "I'm sure you were pretty excited about your first trip through that almost mystical stargate device. Am I right?"

"Yeah, you are," Jack interrupted, receiving looks from both women, "Captain Carter here was almost close to wetting herself." He looked towards the Captain, a smug expression forming on his face when she saw the look of annoyance appear on Carter. He certainly enjoyed doing his best to tease the other team members, especially in situations like this.

"And so I was right," Katelyn said, smirking as she turned to look back at Carter, "so rather than be such a hypocrite you should just…shut up? No, I'm sorry…" Katelyn smiled, noticing the stunned silence that had fallen across the interior of the room. Hammond didn't seem too bothered by it while Jack was sitting with an amused expression on his face, enjoying the argument as it flared up thanks to Katelyn's more direct way of talking. Carter frowned although she wasn't the type who was easily annoyed, obviously controlling herself when it came to situations such as this.

"Uh, General, you're just going to let her speak to me this way?" Carter looked towards Hammond, expecting an answer. Hammond returned the gaze, taking a moment to realize just what she was referring to. He turned to the Lieutenant and gave her a sharp and serious gaze, one that more or less told her the extent of things.

"Now Lieutenant, speak in that way anymore to a superior officer such as the Captain here and I'll have to report you for minor insubordination," the General said bluntly. Katelyn nodded but looked completely unfazed, turning her gaze back towards Captain Carter.

Jack looked at Carter, a little surprised that she had called on to Hammond for backup. Of course, Carter was more of a by-the-book soldier so it made sense, although Jack was used to her usually replying in much the same way to whoever was being rude towards her. Perhaps Katelyn was a special case, one that Carter wasn't sure about. She had been right back in the cafeteria about the Lieutenant though: she didn't like her and it seemed the feeling was shared.

"Besides, you all should be just getting along," Hammond said, a little irritated, "I don't like to see animosity between the members of one of my best teams."

"I agree," Jack said, looking at both Lieutenant Raine and Captain Carter in turn, "I think everyone here should just try and get along."

"That's easy for you to say," Katelyn replied in a quieter tone, as if she was speaking more to herself than anyone else. Everybody else did hear it though and Jack could only shrug at her response, noticing the General look at him with a serious expression.

"Now, I'm sure having a new team member can be a bit hard to get used to," the General said towards the team, "but I'm sure you're all going to make sure the Lieutenant's time in SG-1 is going to be an excellent learning experience for her. I want you all to treat her with the same respect that you treat each other and I want no more of this arguing, is that clear?"

Carter and Katelyn were the ones to nod in understanding. Jack didn't have any reason to agree since he wasn't the one the new girl didn't like. Instead, she seemed rather irritated towards Carter's sheer existence, a fact that Jack found somewhat amusing. Daniel simply gave a "don't look at me" look while Teal'c kept straight-faced as he always did; a straight-face that Jack had seen so many times in so many tough situations. The Jaffa was probably trained to keep his cool under pressure, something which couldn't be said of everybody.

Another little thing that Jack found interesting was the Lieutenant's apparent "ruthlessness". He was yet to see any aspect of this but he supposed that it was referring to a combat situation, the sort of situation he was yet to be with her in. He was curious to how she handled herself although all signs now pointed to a rather "ruthless" means of getting through a fight, hence the reason she was described that way within her file. If she was such a bad-ass Jack wanted to see her in action.

"Yeah, that's clear, sir," Katelyn said in response to the General's talk, "clear as water…"  
Hammond stood up, satisfied that the matter had been dealt with appropriately. Of course, he knew barely anything of it and probably didn't care too much about it.

"Alright, that matter's been settled," he said, looking towards the five team member and then down at the watch around his left wrist. "You can all go and start preparing for the mission. Remember, I want every one of you in the gate room by five o'clock, ready for departure."

"Understood, General," Jack replied, answering for the whole of the team. Hammond left the briefing room, heading off to do his own thing and thus leaving the whole of SG-1 in the briefing room. For a moment there was an awkward silence before Jack decided to stand up, doing so with the intention of heading off to get ready for the mission. It was a routine he had become quite accustomed to and one that didn't take too long.

It usually involved heading to a locker room, getting into the appropriate outfit before heading off to an armoury to gear up. The others were getting out of their seats as well, deciding that sooner was better than later.

"Come on, let's go people," he said, just to remind them what they were meant to be doing, "we don't want to keep SG-8 waiting any longer than they have to."

As the other team members filtered past him and out of the briefing room he took the moment to turn around and peer out of the thick glass windows behind him that overlooked the gate room. Within the room the stargate was in its usual position, high-powered clamps hooked up to it in a few places which provided power to the device. Already a cart on four small wheels had been set up at the base of the stargate's ramp. Upon it was a small winged craft prepped on top of it as a pair of men in lab-coats looked over the device and checked it.

The winged craft was only about a metre and a half long, grey with the insignia of stargate command on its wings. It was a UAV, otherwise known as an "Unmanned Airborne Vehicle" in full. It had a camera and a few different sorts of sensors attached to it front and its underbelly. These devices would in turn provide picture and readings from its current location straight back to the control room a floor below where Jack was now. It was a better scout craft than a basic MALP (Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe) but perhaps a bit fragile if it ever ended up getting shot at.

Jack turned around to head out of the briefing room, catching a glimpse of Carter through the window at the end of the room which looked into General Hammond's office. Hammond was seated at his desk, filing through some loose papers while Carter was talking, her voice only faint through the closed door and window. However, Jack could have a guess at what she was talking to the General about and so stood outside the door, keeping an eye on Carter through the window so he could see if she was coming out or not.

"…I don't think she likes me, sir," Carter was saying as Jack approached the door. He had never been much of an eavesdropper but this time around curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"And what exactly do you want me to do about that, Captain?" Hammond asked, "I'm not in any position to simply boot the Lieutenant out of the team just because she doesn't like you."

"Sir, I just don't think I can work with her," Carter said, some irritation in her voice at her lack of progress in the matter, "it's like my existence gets on her nerves."

"Again, Captain, I can't do anything about that," the General replied, almost innocently. He couldn't simply kick someone out of a team just because they didn't get along well with the other team members.

"Just because she doesn't like you, doesn't mean I have to kick her out," the General continued, "her father directly requested at least three weeks for her daughter in SG-1 and I intend to follow those instructions. The best I can do is tell you to figure out your and the Lieutenant's differences amongst yourselves."

Jack watched Carter nod through the window, taking note of the reluctance in her expression. He could tell that Carter was serious on the matter, otherwise she would never have complained to the General in the first place. Then again, Carter had never really been the type to complain. Then again, maybe Lieutenant Katelyn Raine was a special case. Never before had another team member been pasted onto SG-1 and so a new experience such as this could very adversely affect the current team members.

Jack had never been keen on the idea but had resigned to the fact he could do little about it. Besides, Katelyn wasn't such a bad woman when you got to know her and the extra help wouldn't hurt. At first it had seemed that Jack had been the only one against the addition to the team but now it seemed that Carter was the only one against the addition to the team, with Jack having had his mind changed during the short time he had spent knowing the Lieutenant. It was ironic to think that Carter had originally been one of the team members supporting the idea earlier today, only for her mind to end up changed hours later.

"I'm just worried that it might affect my performance out on the field, sir," Carter said, sounding serious about this.

"You're just going to have to live with that, Captain," Hammond said, "as I've been saying, even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to get her off of the team. Her father is a very powerful man and if I did that I might end up…" He trailed off, trying to think about this for a moment. "Well, I might end up being replaced _by_ her father."

_That would be interesting_, Jack thought, finding this assumption amusing. Hammond getting replaced by Katelyn's father? Part of him wanted to see how the SGC would be if that ever happened. The place would probably end up overrun with Goa'uld within weeks.

Jack was thinking about this when the door to the office opened, Carter stepping out only to find Jack standing in front of her. She gave him a funny look, not having expected to find him eavesdropping on the conversation from outside.

"Sorry Captain," Jack said, turning his gaze to her, "I didn't think you'd be coming out so early…"

"Eavesdropping, Colonel?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Jack simply shrugged in response.

"No, I was simply standing here, admiring the paintwork on this wall," he replied, gesturing towards the nearby grey wall. Carter wasn't amused, he could see that. She never seemed to be much in the way of the humorous type.

Carter simply shook her head and kept on walking, leaving the Colonel to admire the paintwork on the nearby wall. He got tired of it after a few seconds and started after the Captain, figuring that they should head off and start preparing for their departure to P5H-734.

He walked alongside the flustered looking Captain Carter as she headed out of the briefing room and out into the corridor. She didn't seem to pay much attention to his presence, too caught up in her own thoughts to be concerned about him.

"I take it you don't like the Lieutenant?" Jack asked after a short silence. Carter looked at him, a frown creasing her good-looking features only briefly.

"She doesn't like me, Colonel," she replied bluntly, "I just can't see why that's the case."

"Oh, Captain, we've discussed this before," Jack said, trying to remember if they had or not. Carter raised an eyebrow, a little unsure of what he was trying to say. Jack, however, knew just how to put it.

"She thinks you like me even though she likes me," Jack said, trying to figure out whether that made sense or not, "she thinks you're competition for the best looking guy in the squad…"

"Okay Colonel, now you're just sounding cocky," Carter said, halting in her tracks. Jack stopped as well, able to see the Captain was only a bit irritated by his over-confidence.

"What? I'm just saying," Jack replied, almost innocently, "the Lieutenant has a thing for me. As if you can't see that?"

"Are you sure she does or are you just hoping she does?"

Jack thought about this for a moment. It could be true but there was too much evidence supporting it, such as the conversation he had had with the Lieutenant on the firing range a few hours earlier.

"Well…"

Jack was about to continue his reply when a familiar sounding siren wailed from all around. It was followed by the voice of a technician from the control room speaking through the facility's announcement system. Neither Jack nor Carter had been expecting such an announcement but it was enough to get them running downstairs and into the control room.

"_Warning! Incoming wormhole! Iris sealed!"_

The control room was a floor below the briefing room, filled with banks of computers and panels with blinking lights on them. Technicians were seated at their assigned places while the windows in front of them gave a wide view of the gate room outside. Within the gate room the stargate's chevrons were lit up as an incoming wormhole attempted to reach it. However, the base's first line of defence against incursion through the stargate was the iris, a retractable metal shield that appeared to fold in on itself in the centre, giving the impression of a shutter inside a camera. It was made from a titanium-trinium composite metal, placed only three microns from the event horizon which allowed a wormhole to form but prevented any matter from reconstructing after it had arrived. In other words, step into it from the wormhole side and you would suffer a "bug on a windshield" death.

Jack stood behind the technician at the dialling computer, looking through the windows ahead as several soldiers ran into the gate room and readied themselves for a possible attack, setting up defensive positions with their weapons trained on the stargate. Carter was standing to the Colonel's left, watching the scene unfold.

General Hammond came walking in at a brisk pace, approaching the technician at the dialling computer. Behind him were Daniel, Teal'c and Katelyn, the three of them curious to see what was going on.

The dialling computer was the control room's main computer, the result of twenty years of trial and error as all sorts of methods had been tried to get the stargate in working order. The dialling computer was capable of dialling a stargate address at a decent enough pace, although it was far slower than a conventional dialling via a Dial Home Device. This was one disadvantage it had since if someone kept trying to dial them from some other planet chances are they would beat the SGC's computers by a large amount of seconds.

"What's going on?" Hammond asked just as the wormhole behind the iris formed, the splash effect being contained by the metal shield. A blue shimmering light enveloped the back of the gate room but other than that the whole room was silent, the soldiers waiting with their weapons raised expecting something to slam against the back of the iris within the next few seconds.

"I'm getting a transmitter code," the technician at the dialling computer announced much to everyone's surprise. A row of numbers appeared on part of the computer's screen, a green light blinking as the transmitter code was identified.

"Who is it?" Hammond asked, frowning, "there's no one scheduled back at this hour…"

"It's SG-8, sir," the technician announced, "Should I open the iris?"

"Do it," Hammond replied immediately. If there was a chance that SG-8 was coming back then it was all the chance they needed. Jack, on the other hand, was a bit doubtful it was them. They had been out of contact for more than two days and they just suddenly decide to return now? It struck him as a bit odd but then again he hadn't exactly been timely during some of his returns.

The iris retracted, revealing the blue shimmering watery haze of the event horizon beneath. For a few seconds everyone waited tensely, expecting someone to come through at any moment. Katelyn seemed to be standing there with a worried look on her face, as if something didn't quite add up about the situation.

"What if it isn't them?" She asked.

"Who could it be then?" Carter countered, "Each team has their own unique transmitter code. If it's not them then…"

"Then what?"

As if in response to this someone did end up coming through the stargate, just not in the way that everyone was expecting. He was in the standard uniform of an SG team, a green camouflage outfit which beared the insignia of Captain. Unfortunately for this Captain he had simply fallen out of the wormhole, a hand at his throat as blood sprayed out of a torn artery. He came to rest just in front of the open wormhole, writhing about briefly while being observed by the many stunned onlookers. The soldiers in the room tensed, expecting something to follow the man out of the stargate but nothing came. Instead, the event horizon disappeared into nothingness, leaving empty space within the stargate.

"Get a medical team down there!" Hammond exclaimed into the microphone by the computer, his voice ringing out throughout this part of the base. In response a few men in white lab-coats came running into the gate room a short time later, racing up to the motionless body of the SG-8 Captain. The medical team only had to take one look at him to see that he was dead, a fact that made Hammond shift uncomfortably where he stood.

Jack was definitely surprised. Not often did something like this happen with some dead team member making in through the stargate. He figured the Captain had received his fatal wound seconds before stepping through, although it looked more like he had simply fallen through the stargate's wormhole. That was probably close to what had happened on the other side, getting shot only centimetres from the event horizon and in turn stumbling into the wormhole.

The rest of the team simply stood in silence for a moment, thinking over what had just happened. It was a sure sign that there was something more than research opportunities awaiting them on P5H-734.

Hammond turned to face the Colonel, his face serious. He seemed a little solemn at the loss of a valued soldier but was otherwise intent on finding out what had happened.

"Colonel, I want your team ready to depart to P5H-734 immediately," he said, more of an order than anything else. Jack nodded in response, as curious as to what awaited them on that distant planet as much as Hammond was.

"So, we're going there?" Daniel asked, sounding a little uncertain, "don't you think you should give us reinforcements…or at least a little extra help?"

"I'm your extra help," Katelyn replied, "and we're going to go to this planet and find out what happened to the missing team, seeing as one of them just got killed. Do you have a problem with that, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel shook his head, deciding it was best to keep on the Lieutenant's good side.

"No, not at all," he replied.

"I think this whole 'missing team' business just got a little more complicated," Jack commented.


	9. Departure

**Chapter Seven: Departure**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex

The inside of the control room was cool with a slight warm breeze coming from the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. Computer screens were online, flashing statistics and information. Lights were flashing and technicians were milling about, going about their own work as the dialling computer kicked into life.

The stargate within the gate room, visible through the windows in the front of the control room, had begun to creak as its inner wheel began to rotate. The dialling computer encoded the very first symbol, number twenty-one which corresponded to the constellation known as Pisces. The technician seated at the dialling computer spoke into the microphone to his left, announcing the encoding.

"Chevron one engaged!"

Down in the gate room, a pair of lab-coated technicians was working on the UAV which was prepped on its launcher at the base of the ramp. Nearby stood Daniel Jackson, First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine and Teal'c. The three of them were geared up in the standard SG team outfits, with Kevlar vests (which did little to stop energy weapons) and several pouches containing grenades, medicine and other items.

The plan was fairly straightforward: the UAV would be sent through to scout out further ahead of the stargate for any potentially hostile forces. It was safe to assume that who had killed that SG-8 team member would also be after the remaining three as well as want to kill anymore who arrived on the planet. It was expected that there would be hostiles on the other side of the stargate and thus a standard MALP would make to much of an easy target. A UAV was both nimble and airborne, being far more difficult to hit. If there were indeed hostile forces just on the other side of the stargate then the team would plan accordingly. Hammond had mentioned that he was organizing SG-3 as backup and would send them through if things got desperate enough.

The first chevron locked, the orange lighted inverted triangle on one part of the stargate bringing itself down over the Pisces symbol and then up, lit up with an orange-red hue. The inner wheel began spinning again, this time the symbol corresponding to the constellation known as Sculptor being locked in, the appropriate chevron on the stargate lighting up.

"Chevron two engaged!"

Seated at a currently blank computer screen was Captain Samantha Carter. The computer in question was in fact the one linked to the UAV, providing a handy view of what the cameras on the craft could see once they were activated when the UAV had passed through the stargate. A control stick was at the base of the computer, being the very thing she would use to guide the UAV during its flight.

Colonel Jack O'Neill stood nearby, watching as the stargate and dialling computer went about the usual address-dialling routine. He had seen it done plenty of times before and so it wasn't particularly fascinating, until the stargate itself lit up and send forth the "splash" that vaporized anyone stupid enough to be standing in its path. That was why no one was standing on the ramp that lead into the mouth of the stargate for fear of getting a nasty surprise when the stargate activated.

The Colonel was mostly geared up and ready to leave once the UAV's flight was over. He had also made sure to pack extra tissues this time around since his nose had begun to run considerably, an annoying occurrence that would prove to frustrate him even further once they were out in the field. He blew his nose in one tissue now, trying to clear up the mucus that was building up in it. Damn, he hated having a cold.

The next symbol, number fifteen which corresponded to the constellation of Capricorn, was locked in at that moment.

"Chevron three engaged!"

Jack looked towards Carter, wiping his nose clean with a tissue. He could tell that the Captain wasn't particularly looking forward to a trip through the stargate with Lieutenant Raine but it just so happened she would have to put up with it. Jack, on the other hand, found this growing dislike between the two rather funny.

According to the information that SG-8 had managed to send back before their untimely disappearance, P5H-734 was an Earth-like world with forests and oceans. It was also prone to thunderstorms and lightning strikes that sparked wildfires. All in all, it sounded like a nice enough place for a visit. It would have been better if they were going there for less serious reasons.

A team was missing, presumed dead. One of their numbers had fallen through the stargate with a bullet in his throat, a bullet that had more or less shredded itself up on impact to blow a massive hole in his neck. According to the findings that the resident doctor had discovered, it seemed that the ammunition shards found lodged in the man's neck didn't correspond to any sort of ammunition on record. Either it was very new stuff or alien in origin. Jack was going with the latter, thinking that perhaps SG-8 had pissed off the locals. That is, _if_ there were any locals. This wouldn't be the first time a team had encountered a fairly advanced local population, although the most advanced they had seen aside from the Goa'uld had been with the Tollans and they hadn't made contact with Earth for a fairly long time.

The next symbol, number thirty-nine which corresponded to the constellation of Leo, was dialled and locked into place.

"Chevron four engaged!"

_Geez, this is taking a while._

Jack looked towards Captain Carter again, seeing that she was busy typing into the computer she was seated at. It looked like she was setting up the connection to the UAV's cameras, being one of the only people in the base who actually knew how to do that. Sure, usually it would be the job of a technician but Carter had always had a thing for using UAVs.

The next symbol, number thirty-two which corresponded to the symbol known as Monoceros, was dialled and locked at that moment.

"Chevron five engaged!"

_Almost there…_

All stargate addresses required six symbols and a point of origin. Often this point of origin was unique but sometimes it wasn't, it just depended on the importance of the planet. Earth had its own unique point of origin, represented by a triangle and circle just above its point which, if Jack was correct, represented the sun (or was it the moon? He wasn't sure) rising over the top of a pyramid in Egypt, the very place where the stargate had been discovered.

The last symbol, number twenty-seven which represented the constellation of Taurus, was locked into place.

"Chevron six engaged!"

And last, but not least, came the point of origin for Earth. According to the information Jack and the rest of SG-1 had been given the point of origin for P5H-734 wasn't unique, instead being symbol number thirteen which represented the constellation of Aquila. Jack guessed that P5H-734 hadn't been important enough to the people who had built the stargates for it to deserve a unique point of origin.

"Chevron seven locked!"

The stargate activated, sending forth the column of blue water-like energy that was sucked back into the ring within seconds, leaving only the rippling blue of the event horizon.

_Finally…_

Jack watched as the technicians prepped the UAV for launch, moving away from the launcher once it was ready. The gate room had been filled with an eerie blue, rippling light that emanated from the stargate's event horizon.

No one had to worry about anything nasty coming through, seeing as wormholes were only one-way. No one knew exactly what happened if you went through it the wrong way but it was assumed you would be lost in hyperspace forever, not exactly the way anyone wanted to go seeing as you would not only be still alive but deconstructed to your component molecules.

One of the technicians flicked a switch on the UAV's launcher, the craft's rear end igniting in a brief flash which in turn propelled it towards the wormhole. It disappeared within the watery, rippling mass of energy and Jack couldn't help but smile.

"That never gets dull," he said cheerfully, turning to Carter. The Captain was already operating the computer in front of her, the screen blinking for a moment before the camera feed from the UAV appeared on screen.

"I got the signal," she said, gripping the joystick in front of her. Jack watched as a wide clearing appeared on the screen, the UAV at a sensible height over this particular clearing. Ahead was rainforest and in the distance, just visible on the UAV's less than decent cameras was what appeared to be a mountain range. The rainforest looked thick from above, its canopy probably having the ability to block out all sunlight from getting through to the ground below. The skies above were dark and foreboding, streams of rain water falling upon the UAV's cameras.

Jack was watching this all with some curiosity, expecting to see some sign of intelligent life but finding none. Whoever had shot SG-8's Captain had all but gone.

"See if you can find their camp," Jack suggested. Carter nodded, guiding the UAV in a circle over the stargate. The camera feed crackled abruptly, as if there was some sort of interference.

"There it is," Carter said, directing the camera to an area to the right of the stargate. A large green tent came into view, empty metal containers littering the area outside of it. Jack noticed something a little odd about the sides of the tent as the UAV did a fly over and he took a step closer so he was standing just beside the Captain, pointing to one section of the tent.

"Go a bit lower, that way we can make out the sides," he said. Carter nodded, guiding the UAV so that it came a bit lower and at such an angle that the sides of the tent were clearly visible.

Jack felt a pang of uncertainty at what he saw. There were bullet-sized tears in parts of the tent, as if someone had come along and fired right across it, ripping holes in the fabric and smashing whatever had been inside. If anybody had been unfortunate to be inside the tent at the time then they would have met a grisly fate indeed.

Carter noticed this too, momentarily pausing and letting the UAV glide while she thought about the implications of this little find.

"What do you think, Colonel?" She asked.

Jack was silent for a moment, taking his time to think this through. There was obviously someone, probably more than one someone, who had a grudge against people who came through the stargate. It looked like they had also taken the time to ransack the contents of the many crates and containers SG-8 had brought with them, hence the reason most of these containers were scattered around everywhere with their contents littering the ground around them. It was surprising that there was no one at the stargate, although maybe they were just gone temporarily. Whoever these killers were, Jack intended to find out. If they had killed one SG-8 member then it was possible they had killed or were in the process of killing the other three. Such an occurrence could be prevented, but Jack intended on finding out a little more about the surrounding area near the gate first. Whoever had a grudge against SG-8 was probably still around and may even by lying in wait for any unsuspecting travellers to come out of the stargate.

"Looks like someone decided to shoot the place up a bit," Jack said, noticing one other thing. The UAV was flying over the top of the stargate now while Carter decided on where to go next. The DHD was visible and lying near it was an ominous dark shape. Jack pointed to it, finding that Carter had noticed it as well.

Fiddling briefly with the computer's keyboard the camera on the UAV zoomed in on the dark shape, bringing it into clear view. Both Jack and Carter simply exchanged grim expression when they saw what it was, both of them realizing that things seemed to be getting more and more serious as the minutes went on.

Lying by the DHD was a dead body, one dressed in an SG team uniform. From what Jack could make out in the slightly blurred close up was the insignia of a Lieutenant, a dark pool of dried blood around his head. In actual fact, upon closer inspection of the close up it appeared that part of his head was actually missing. There was no other sign of injury save for the single chunk of head that had been blown away. The sight made Jack feel a little repulsed.

"Take it over the rainforest," Jack suggested, deciding it was best they send the UAV further on for scouting. There may still be hostiles about, although it would probably be hard to tell who the bad guys were at first. They had no idea what to expect, a fact that Jack found a little annoying. He preferred to have some idea of what he was going up against.

In this case it probably wasn't Goa'uld. The one body that had fallen through the stargate only a couple of hours before had suffered a nasty bullet wound, implying that whoever was on this world had about the same level of technology as the people of Earth. Jack couldn't think of any other reason, although one other popped into his mind which he quickly quelled on the basis that it was severely improbable.

_There is no way some modern Earth people could be there already_.

Jack watched as Carter guided the UAV further over the rainforest, heading farther and farther away from the stargate. A wide river winded its way through the rainforest and Carter began following it upstream and towards the faraway mountain range. For another five minutes she flew the UAV over the river, following the stream further and further from the clearing where the stargate was located.

It was hard to get a good view of what was under the rainforest's canopy. It was too thick for one thing, making it the ideal place to hide things you didn't want people to see from up above. However, aside from this minor disadvantage it seemed that the interference that had occurred before was beginning to happen again, this time with increasing regularity as the UAV went farther and farther from the stargate and closer to the mountain range. Lines of static appeared across the screen, at first only minor but within minutes it was shaking the picture and making it near impossible to make out what was displayed on the camera feed.  
Carter seemed to be having trouble controlling the UAV now, gripping the throttle with increasing frustration as she moved it from left to right, attempting to level out the UAV and keep it from spinning out of control. Carter had a rather frustrated look on her face which soon became a flustered and angry look when the camera feed went out completely, becoming a blur of green and greys and the UAV began to barrel roll.

"I'm losing the signal…" She said through gritted teeth, pulling the throttle to one side and only barely levelling the UAV. Jack watched without knowing what to think as the picture flickered from a fuzzy display to a completely blurred and static filled screen, allowing the two of them to watch as the UAV flew dead on into the rainforest canopy close to the river.

"Great flying Captain," he said sarcastically, patting Carter on the shoulder much to her discontent, "no wonder you became a pilot…"

"Stop it Colonel," she said as she stood up. Jack took his hand off of her shoulder, glancing briefly out of the control room's windows and towards the stargate and the still-active rippling wormhole. Teal'c, Katelyn and Daniel were still waiting outside, expecting some sort of report about whether or not they would be travelling to P5H-734. They would most definitely be going, all five members of the team including Jack.

Carter reached out to switch off the computer monitor but what the garbled camera feed was showing them now was worth the watch. Jack saw her renewed interest on what was on screen and looked there as well, suitably surprised at what he saw. It was also another thing to complicate matters further even though the situation was complicated enough already.

The UAV was stuck in a tree, green leaves partially obscuring the camera's view. Lines of static phased in and out of the feed while the camera itself was looking down at the ground at an odd angle. Standing at the base of the tree were two men, dressed in what looked to be simple brown shirts and matching pants. One of them had raised what looked to be some sort of old fashioned rifle, pointing it towards the UAV while the other was slowly approaching the tree, looking up at the downed unmanned craft with a curious look on his face.

"What do you know?" Jack commented, "natives! Ten bucks says they speak perfect English."

Carter ignored this remark, instead keeping her gaze fixed on the computer screen. Jack was watching too as the man approaching the tree started to slowly climb up the branches until he was within reach of the UAV. His face came into view of the camera, showing a middle-aged looking man with a heavy greying beard. He reached out and moved the UAV slightly, sending the craft falling out of the tree and hurtling to the ground a short distance below. However, the camera was the most affected by the short fall when the feed was lost upon impact. Instead, a caption appeared in the middle of a black screen explaining that the signal had been interrupted.

Carter turned around and she and the Colonel exchanged looks.

"You don't think they were the ones who shot SG-8's Captain?" Jack asked, doubtful about this fact but still curious as to what Carter thought on the matter.

"Probably not sir," she replied, "the rifle that other one had…It sort of looked like an old gun, sort of like a flintlock rifle or something. The bullet shards we found in the Captain's throat are far too advanced in design to be from a simple metal ball launched from a primitive gun."

Jack nodded. Obviously Carter knew more about these things than he did. Then again, she knew more about most things than he did. This was why she was a scientist with the habit of making things sound more complicated than they actually were.

"Fair enough," Jack replied. He would prefer it that the natives weren't the hostile ones. Usually the hostiles were those that had arrived from somewhere else, coming down to enslave the native population. The Goa'uld were the main culprits of this sort of thing.

Jack didn't think standing around any longer was going to help the potential survivors of SG-8. Two were already dead, leaving two more to be found. Those surviving two, if Jack recalled correctly, would be a female Lieutenant and the squad leader Colonel Richardson. Richardson was a tough man and wouldn't go down easily so Jack was expecting to find him alive.

The wormhole was still open, filling the gate room with a blue-white rippling light. The technicians were moving the UAV launcher out of the way and were still in the process of doing so as Jack and Carter headed out of the control room and down a set of stairs, coming out into a short corridor and through an open blast door before entering the gate room. Many times had they passed through this room and many times had they passed through the stargate. In actual fact, the gate room was probably the most important room in the whole of the SGC.

Katelyn, Daniel and Teal'c were standing near the base of the ramp. Teal'c was looking his usual straight-faced self, standing tall with his signature Jaffa staff weapon gripped in his right hand. Daniel was talking with the Lieutenant about something, showing her how to use a standard GDO (Garage Door Opener). Lieutenant Katelyn Raine, however, seemed to be having trouble with operating the device and was fiddling with it incessantly.

Hammond walked in from the other door, having been caught up in a meeting that had prevented him from arriving here earlier. He approached the team, his straight-to-business demeanour all the more noticeable.

"Find out anything interesting with the UAV, Captain?" He asked, looking towards Carter.

"Yes sir," she replied, her voice taking on a serious tone, "we were able to find the body of another member of SG-8. He was sprawled near the DHD, having suffered a head wound…"

Hammond frowned, realizing the extent of what she was saying.

"Another of them is dead?" He didn't want to believe it but it was the truth. It seemed that someone had gone ahead to try and systematically slaughter the whole of SG-8.

Carter nodded, solemn. She did, however, take on a lighter tone with her next bit of news.

"There does seem to be a native population," she said, "they may be of some assistance."  
Hammond raised an eyebrow.

"You're sure they're not the ones who murdered the two members of SG-8?"  
Carter paused for a moment, thinking about this.

"I'm pretty sure they're innocent, sir."

Hammond nodded to before turning towards the Colonel. Jack raised an eyebrow, seeing the seriousness on the old General's face.

"Colonel, I want you to do whatever it takes to find out who's behind the deaths. Not only that, but you have permission to act against the perpetrators accordingly. If you can, find out what happened to the remaining two members of SG-8."

This more or less meant that Jack and the rest of SG-1 had the permission to find out who was responsible and deal with them in return, presumably killing off the killers. Of course, this would come after the appropriate intelligence gathering since the more information they had about their enemies the better they could defend themselves from them and take appropriate offensive action.

Jack nodded to the General's order, agreeing with his way of thinking entirely.

"You can count on us, sir," he replied.

* * *

First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine had mixed feelings about SG-1. Sure, she found Colonel Jack O'Neill to be the sarcastic yet surprisingly likeable squad leader but she had also met the annoying scientist-cross-soldier that was Captain Samantha Carter. Daniel Jackson, on the other hand, seemed nice enough although a bit of the fidgety type. Teal'c was the kind of figure one would easily come to respect and respect Katelyn did.

She was fairly certain she liked the Colonel, having come close to admitting this when she had been with him out on the firing range. However, she was also fairly certain that Jack wasn't particularly interested.

Right now though she had far more pressing issues on her mind, such as the fact that they were preparing to leave through the stargate. She had been standing in the gate room with Daniel and Teal'c for about ten minutes, occasionally glancing towards the open wormhole suspended within the stargate. She had watched as the UAV had been launched, operated from the control room by Captain Carter. While they were waiting for the final decision on whether they would be leaving or not, Daniel had taken the time to show her how the GDO transmitter operated. It was simple enough to use and would allow her to avoid a rather nasty fate if she travelled back here through the stargate only to hit the iris.

Jack and Carter were speaking to the General now, having come out of the control room only a few minutes earlier. Katelyn was getting a bit impatient standing around, waiting for the order to get going. She had never been the patient type, preferring to get straight onto business without having to hang around for other people. She took the chance to check over her equipment once again, trying to remember where she had placed all her important items seeing as she had several pouches on her vest and at her waist.

She figured it was all just last minute jitters seeing as she could usually remember where she had placed items. She had done this sort of load-out time and time again during her years in the Special Forces, knowing that she was just freaking out now because she had never been faced with the prospect of travelling to other worlds before.

She had an MP5 submachine gun hanging from a strap over her shoulder along with her family heirloom Colt pistol in a holster at her waist. A few grenades were attached to her belt while her many different pouches contained medicine and a few MREs. All except the Colt pistol was part of a standard SG team load out.

Jack came walking over with Carter a few paces behind him. The Colonel briefly regarded the rest of his team and gestured towards the rippling blue event horizon of the wormhole, Katelyn taking this as the signal that they were about to head off.

"Okay people, we're going to P5H-734," Jack announced, standing at the base of the ramp that lead into the mouth of the stargate, "it seems the planet may have some natives so we're going to try and get into contact with them. Oh yeah, and try and look out for any gun wielding maniacs who might be out to get you."

"So I'm guessing there's no one in the vicinity of the gate?" Daniel asked.

"No one except for a dead SG-8 member," Jack replied, "I'm guessing the people who killed half of SG-8 are either further from the gate or have already packed up and left."

"And if they haven't?" Katelyn was the one to ask this, curious about this new development of there being what sounded like another dead SG-8 team member.

Jack shrugged, pausing briefly to think about this.

"We'll find out the answer to that one way or another," he replied. With that he started heading up the ramp, the others following. Katelyn tagged along behind, unsure of exactly what to expect when she stepped into the stargate's event horizon.

It was here that Katelyn suddenly began to have second thoughts. She watched as Carter, Teal'c and Daniel casually stepped into the portal, literally getting swallowed up by the rippling blue-white energy. Jack hung back just so he could watch Katelyn, raising an eyebrow when he saw her hesitation.

"Don't worry," Jack said, "it doesn't hurt a bit."

Katelyn realized she must have looked a bit nervous about the whole situation. She composed herself, giving the Colonel her usual confident and determined look.

"And I'm supposed to believe you?" She asked.

"Yeah, you are," Jack replied bluntly.

For a moment neither of them said anything until Jack finally realized that Katelyn was merely stalling.

"Are you coming or not?" He asked, frowning, "or are you just going to stand there and look stupid?"

Katelyn didn't say anything. Instead, she took a step towards the rippling event horizon and with some uncertainty she put out a hand, bringing two of her fingers against the watery mass. She pulled them back, watching as ripples extended from where she had touched. It had felt cold, perhaps a little too cold for her liking.

"Goddamn it Lieutenant, just step through," Jack said from her left, one of his arms connecting with her back with enough force to send her stumbling into the wormhole.

There was a brief instance of white light whizzing by at incredible speed as if she was being rushed through space. Suddenly she was out the other side, a chill going down her spine from the sheer coldness of the trip. She found herself, surprisingly enough, standing atop a few stone steps in front of a stargate which was nestled right in the centre of a large clearing. The clearing itself was covered with long grass and surrounded by rainforest. Ahead Katelyn could see a mountain range, leading her to believe that they were in some kind of valley.

She glanced behind her, seeing the event horizon of the stargate. Jack suddenly appeared from within the watery mass, stepping out of it and stopping just off to her left. Ahead of them was the DHD, the circular pedestal device which contained the controls necessary to operate the stargate from this side.

Katelyn looked up, seeing dark grey clouds and feeling a few droplets of rain hit her face. It was only spitting but was obviously the precursor to much heavier rain which looked to be on its way. She tilted her head back down again, watching as Teal'c, Daniel and Carter made their way down the short few steps and into the long tall grass. Half-buried in the mud a little way past the DHD was a discarded MALP, having been there since before SG-8's arrival more than two days earlier.

To the right of the stargate was a large green tent which appeared to be riddled with bullet holes. Metal containers lays discarded outside, as if someone had systematically gone through them all and discarded whatever they had found that hadn't been to their liking. Katelyn noticed the body lying by the DHD, watching as Captain Carter approached the dead Lieutenant from SG-8 and simply shook her head.

"He's dead sir," she said, looking back towards the Colonel.

"Of course he's dead, Captain," Jack replied, making his way down the steps, "he's got half his head missing."

Carter didn't reply to Jack's remark, instead looking around the clearing and resting her gaze on the ransacked tent.

"We should take a look in there," she said, "There might be some hints as to where SG-8 was headed before going out of contact."

Katelyn made her way down the few stone steps at the base of the stargate, stepping into the tall grass and finding the ground below to be wet and partially muddy, as if rain had recently come and gone. It probably had judging by the weather here.

"Daniel, Teal'c, check the tent," Jack ordered. The archaeologist and the Jaffa started heading for the ransacked tent although their search for clues would be in vain seeing as whoever had ransacked the tent had been sure to take anything of interest. In fact the only thing the perpetrators had left behind apart from the discarded contents of the opened containers was a laptop that had taken a bullet dead centre into its screen.

Jack looked towards Lieutenant Raine, finding her bemused expression amusing to an extent.

"Yeah, I know, not really special is it?" He said, gesturing towards the surrounding countryside, "I mean, can the galaxy really be this boring?"

He was right about it being little different to typical forest country on Earth. There were trees and grass, as well as rain and the cold breeze to go with a day like this. Katelyn had been expecting something a little different, such as floating rocks or exotic alien plants.

"It looks to be that way," Katelyn replied.

Jack looked around again, gesturing to the ridge up ahead. Obviously he had the intention of moving out.

"Alright, let's go and see if we can find the locals," he said, "as well as find the last two members of SG-8. Hopefully they're still alive."

Somehow though, Katelyn doubted this was the case. She and the rest of the team began making their way across the clearing and into the rainforest, trudging along the muddy earth beneath them. Jack sneezed, hinting that his cold wasn't getting any better in a climate such as this. And so began one heck of a long day.


	10. A Rather Dreary Place

**Chapter Eight: A Rather Dreary Place**

**Location: **P5H-734, five miles from the clearing where the stargate is located

It was cold and the standard uniform and vest did little to keep one warm in weather such as this. Not only was it cold but it was also wet, the ground muddy and damp. Puddles were here and there while the smell of moisture was strong in the air, indicating that the rain clouds above wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. A cool breeze billowed through the rainforest, rustling the leaves of trees and undergrowth while sending a chill through Colonel Jack O'Neill.

Walking at the front of the group, Jack took the chance to stop briefly and sneeze into his arm. It was chilly to say the least and the weather wasn't doing much for his cold, instead making him sneeze every now and then. He was already close to running out of tissues, something which would only annoy him. Wiping a running nose on one's sleeve wasn't entirely appealing to those who might be watching.

Jack was at the front of the group while Captain Samantha Carter walked close to his right, occasionally glancing down at the tracking device she gripped in her left hand. It was tracking the homing device that had been built within the UAV in order for it to be located if it was ever lost out in the field. In the case of the lost UAV here on P5H-734 it would seem that finding the UAV would lead them straight to the locals who had found it. Right now one of their goals was to get in touch with the native population, seeing as they would be the most help in their search for the remaining two members of SG-8. The locals would know their way around, something which couldn't be said for SG-1. Jack had the slight feeling that they were moving a bit too slowly through the rainforest, trudging through the lush undergrowth at too slow a pace. Then again they had been following Captain Carter's directions, something which was either saying something of the group's speed in general or the quality of Carter's directions. Jack wasn't sure which of the two it was, thinking that it was probably a bit of both.

The rainforest was filled with thick shrubs and underbrush, fungi and rotting wood littering the forest floor. Above a thick canopy of leaves and branches blotted out most sunlight, giving the indication that it was much later in the day. In actual fact it was about midday local time although it was hard to tell when most of the sun's light was being blocked and that the sky was only just visible through the slight gaps. It was still overcast, the thick grey clouds helping to further block out the sun's rays.

Jack took a step forward from where he had stopped, noticing something a little different about this particular area. Part of it had been cleared, as if the trees here had been long since removed to allow a sort of dirt road to form. To top things off something glinted in the minimal sunlight, protruding just out of the mud ahead.

Jack looked around at the others to see if they had noticed it as well. They hadn't seemed to and if they had they weren't saying anything about it. In fact, the whole team had stopped seeing that Jack had done the same thing, figuring that it was time for a break. Jack could only agree, finding that all this walking was beginning to make him a little thirsty.

In a place like this Jack could expect to feel a bit hot and humid but in fact it was too cold for such a feeling. Instead, he shivered slightly as a rather cold breeze blew its way through the forest. The leaves rustled loudly but otherwise the whole area was silent, there being barely any noises save for the sound of the breeze and the sounds of the team's footsteps.

Teal'c stopped nearby, looking around with his face narrowed into the Jaffa's typical serious look. He seemed to be scanning the area around him with narrowed eyes, as if something had piqued his interest. Jack felt the same sort of feeling, that maybe there was more to this place than what they were seeing.

"Okay, we'll take a five minute break here everyone," Jack announced, seeing that the others had more or less taken it upon themselves to stop and find a spot to sit and rest for a little while. _May as well give them what they want._

Daniel had sat himself down on a boulder protruding from a mess of fallen branches and leaves, reaching into a pouch in his vest and removing what looked to be an MRE. He unwrapped it slowly, taking the time to smell the chewy contents with uncertainty. It was a moment before he actually took a bite, his face creasing with disgust as he chewed. Regardless of how he found the taste he kept eating, seeing as it was the only sort of food available. That would be the case unless he wanted to eat leaves or something.

Carter was standing a few minutes down the short slope that lead into the cleared dirt road area. She seemed to be looking down either way of the road, finding that it appeared to wind off into the forest both ways. It was definitely a good idea to follow the road rather than trudge through the forest, something that Jack could see that Carter was thinking about by the way she was comparing the direction of the dirt road to the signal she was getting on the homing device she held in her left hand.

Katelyn had been tagging along a few metres behind everyone else, taking the time to admire the scenery as she came to a stop near a rotting and fallen tree trunk. She sat herself down on it, taking the care to dust off a spot before placing her backside onto the fallen tree. She seemed a little bored with their situation, the team having walked at least five miles from the stargate. Jack wasn't too sure how long that had been; taking the time to glance at the digital watch he was wearing around his left wrist. It was still to Earth time and seemed to be indicating that they had been going on non-stop for about an hour and a half.

_How far could the UAV have gone?_ He wondered. Perhaps the local people who had found it had moved it, a certainly plausible possibility that was probably the case in this situation. Jack shifted his gaze back to the glinting metal object halfway protruding from the mud in the middle of the muddy dirt road, stepping down the slight slope on the side of the road as he walked towards it. He almost slipped in a puddle during the trip, having to steady himself on a nearby tree trunk in order to avoid falling over and landing face first in the mud.

This was certainly not the first type of forested world they had come across during their travels through the stargate. In fact, it was probably the umpteenth Earth-like world they had found. They all seemed to have trees and things and many had Earth-like properties, a fact that Carter had justified by mentioning that the stargates had been built to transport people to worlds which could support life. The galaxy seemed to be full of trees apparently.

Jack stopped in the middle of the dirt road, taking a moment to gaze down at the small metal object before bending down and grabbing it. It took only a slight tug to pull it free of the mud, the Colonel rubbing part of it clean as he took it up for a closer look. The object itself appeared to be some sort of large shell casing, looking to have come from a fairly high calibre weapon. Part of Jack's mind was thinking towards the fact that it might have come from the same type of weapon that had killed both SG-8 members earlier today…

_And I'm probably right._

The casing was fairly long for a bullet, being a grey-silver colour. Visible on its side once Jack rubbed a few more chunks of mud off with a gloved hand was what appeared to be the serial number. No manufacturer details were visible, a fact that seemed a bit odd but perhaps a bit foreboding as well. Whoever made this sort of ammunition was obviously trying to keep themselves secret from anyone who may pick up a spent casing such as this and use as evidence to trace it back to the manufacturer.

Jack looked up, facing the rock face on the other side of the dirt road. Now he could see the dark brown stain on one part of the rock-face clearly. Whoever had fired had been standing about where he was now and had shot someone in a place that had sprayed enough blood to splatter it across part of the rock-face ahead.

Jack turned towards Carter who was standing nearby. She was fiddling with the settings on the homing device and so wasn't paying much attention to Jack or what he was doing.

"Hey, Captain," Jack said, getting her attention while he held up the empty casing, "what do you make of this?"

Carter looked up from what she was doing and seemed a little annoyed at the interruption at first, only to see the casing that Jack was holding up. Instantly curious she stepped towards him, taking the casing from him and having a closer look at it herself.

"Well, it's not like any sort of ammunition I've seen before, sir," she said after a brief inspection, handing the empty casing back to the Colonel. Jack slipped it into a pocket in his trousers, deciding to keep it as a bit of a souvenir. It may also be possible to have an expert examine it back at base, perhaps providing more of an insight to the type of enemy they were dealing with here.

"Looks like whoever had the gun was standing here," Jack said, holding up his MP5 (while making sure the safety was on) and pointing it towards the short rock-face ahead. "And whoever got killed was standing just in front of that rock-face." He paused, lowering his weapon and looking at the Captain with a serious gaze.

"Sort of like an execution," Jack said. He took a look at the ground, just in case there were anymore of these empty casings. There were none but he wasn't sure whether this was a good or bad thing.

"Who got killed then?" Carter asked, "Do you think it was another one from SG-8?"

Jack shook his head. There was no way to tell who died here and who the killer was. They could only hope that it wasn't someone from SG-8, otherwise that would send the total body count up to three. Of course, this was just all speculation seeing as no one really knew what was going on here on P5H-734.

"No idea," Jack replied, "but whoever fired did the killing didn't waste much ammo. All they needed was one bullet for one kill by the look of it."

He paused, thinking about this some more before deciding to change the subject a little. He glanced at the homing device that Carter held; a little doubtful as to whether it was actually functioning properly or not. They were five miles out from the stargate and it seemed they were yet to find any trace of the missing scout craft.

"So, how far do you think the UAV is from here?" Jack asked, "Or are we lost? I wouldn't be surprised if we were lost, I mean, women can't read maps…"

Carter frowned at this comment, finding the Colonel's humour to be a bit on the insulting side. Jack saw her reaction and simply gave an innocent shrug.

"What? It's true…Someone even wrote a book on the subject."

Carter ignored this remark and instead held up the homing device, showing him the small display. On it was a white arrow which was pointing to one side of the screen while a faint outline of the surrounding elevations appeared every few seconds.

"I think we're still at least another six miles away from the UAV," Carter replied, "it's hard to tell on a device like this though. I could be wrong or the device could be wrong…this sort of technology can be a bit temperamental."

"Really?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure the natives have moved it," Carter said, "or I could have flown it further than I had first thought…"

"Then we better get going," Jack said, "we've got a good distance to go. As well as that, I'm not especially keen on finding the people who've been going about killing SG-8 and god knows who else."

Jack turned around, facing the rest of the team. Katelyn was chewing on an MRE while Daniel had taken out a small notepad, taking the time to jot down a few notes about his surroundings and what had happened so far. Teal'c was still standing where he had been before, alert as he always was.

"Alright, let's get moving again," Jack announced. Teal'c started on his way down towards where Jack and Carter were while Katelyn and Daniel took their time, Katelyn finishing off her MRE while Daniel stored away his notebook and pen into a pocket in his vest. Daniel had always been the type to keep diaries; a pursuit Jack had never seen the point in doing. However, he hadn't seen any reason why he should argue this point to Daniel and thus had left the man to do his own thing.

Once the team seemed ready enough, Jack turned to Carter with a look that more or less told her they needed some directions. Carter took a moment to figure this out, glancing at the homing device and then down either way of the dirt road. She pointed down the road past Jack.

"We should head this way," she said, "It'll make getting through this forest easier."

"I agree," Jack replied, "let's go."

The team began walking along the muddied dirt road. It seemed that there would be a fairly long walk ahead of them and hopefully they would get it done before it started pouring rain. It was obvious the weather at the moment would eventually deliver a downpour and so Jack was hoping they would get to wherever the locals had their shelter before it started bucketing down.

There was more to this situation than finding a simple UAV, however. In fact, Jack had the feeling that there was something going on that they had only scratched the surface on. SG-8's disappearance had only been the beginning, having ended up with two of the team dead while the other two were still unaccounted for. Whatever was going on here on P5H-734 Jack was intent on finding out, although he had the feeling it would mean getting shot at by bad guys at one point in time. It always seemed to end up that way.

The team followed the dirt road for a while, occasionally having to step through large puddles that had formed in the uneven levelling of the road. It was obvious that the dirt road had only been cleared recently with fallen trees moved off and piled to the side like discarded timber. Above them the sky was visible through the gap created by the road through the rainforest canopy, the dark clouds floating low and foreboding over the valley. An ominous rumble of thunder sounded from somewhere far off, another sign of coming rain.

Jack noticed that nobody seemed very talkative, perhaps because of Katelyn being the new team member and slight intruder in their team. Wiping his running nose with a tissue, Jack decided to change the lack of conversation into directly the opposite. After all, the silence was making him a bit uneasy along with the cold rainforest landscape.

Katelyn was walking a few metres behind the group, Jack having told her earlier to keep watch on the rear. He was still doubtful of her abilities despite the fact that she had proven herself to be an excellent marksman. She had only been in the team for less than a day and already she had been dragged off to some faraway planet, being told to do good otherwise she wouldn't end up getting her promotion. It must have been a considerable amount of pressure to be stuck with the flagship team of the SGC although she wasn't showing any signs of stress. Instead, she seemed very aware of her surroundings. Jack couldn't be sure of her performance in a combat situation so sticking her at the rear of their formation seemed a safe enough position for her.

"So, Lieutenant, been to rainforests much before?" He asked, "Because you'll be going to plenty with us in the next three weeks."

Lieutenant Katelyn Raine looked up, having been distant in her own thoughts to really be paying much attention.

"Rainforests? Like this?" She asked.

"The galaxy is a surprisingly dull place," Jack replied matter-of-factly, "it's also full of trees. And people who want to kill you."

"Like the Goa'uld?"

"Yeah, they're the main ones, always out to enslave human populations." He paused, thinking about this for a moment. There weren't too many other hostile factions in the galaxy, at least none that they knew of. It was either the Goa'uld or…well, he couldn't really think of any others. Reetou rebels seemed like a minor sidenote to SG-1's adventures, having only cropped up a few weeks back.

"I think you'll find your time with us an excellent learning experience," Jack said, somewhat sarcastically. Katelyn sensed the sarcasm in his voice and frowned, unsure of whether to take him seriously or not.

"Look, I didn't ask to be part of your little team," she said, sounding a bit flustered, "it wasn't my idea and you know that."

"Touchy, are we?" Jack glanced at her, seeing that she was annoyed. Annoyed about what? Being on the team? Well, perhaps it was apparent that the pressure on her was beginning to show through.

"No, not really," Katelyn replied as the team kept on walking along the muddied dirt road, "just trying to make some things clear. This stint I have with you is just so I can prove myself to the SGC and get my own team."

This was more or less true. Jack could see Katelyn had never wanted to become part of their team although this had changed seeing as she had the obvious liking for him. Of course, Jack could easily be mistaken and simply having a case of wishful thinking. He was hoping he was still attractive to women the Lieutenant's age, seeing as he was just over forty years old.

"Sounds like she loves our company," Daniel commented. He received a rather furious look from the Lieutenant, enough to incline him to making no more comments.

"So, I would like it if my three weeks with you guys didn't involve anything too dangerous," Katelyn said, no longer as angry as she had been seconds before, "sure, I like the occasional adventure but the last thing I need is to get killed when hanging out with you guys."

Jack raised an eyebrow, glancing back at her. Was that implying something else?

"You don't think we're very good at what we do, am I right?" Jack asked, finding this fact a little amusing. Katelyn seemed a bit up herself. Well, maybe more than just a _bit_. It seemed that both Carter and Daniel were listening to the conversation but weren't making it obvious, instead walking along and pretending to mind their own business. Jack could tell otherwise.

"Colonel, you jump to conclusions too quickly," Katelyn replied somewhat bluntly. Jack simply shrugged, returning his gaze to his front as he stepped his way through a short puddle and ruined his standard issue boots with mud.

The team had made some progress since their last stop but were still a long way from their intended location according to Carter's homing device. Teal'c was walking a few metres ahead of them, alert to his surroundings as he usually was with a staff weapon in hand just in case he started getting shot at. They had been following the road for the last ten minutes or so and still hadn't found anything of interest save for trees and bushes on all sides. However, Teal'c was beginning to walk at a far brisker pace than usual, heading around a corner at a set of boulders and disappearing from view.

"Hey, Teal'c, where you going?" Jack called out after the Jaffa, following him around the boulders. Usually when Teal'c done this sort of thing it was because he had found something interesting or they were all about to come under attack. Hopefully it wasn't the latter since that would be rather inconvenient, getting shot at this early on in the mission.

Jack was pleasantly surprised by what was around the corner. Here the rainforest spread out a little, becoming only slightly less dense than it had been. The dirt road winded off into the distance but it did pass by something worth checking out. The rest of SG-1 followed Jack and Teal'c into this new area, all of them surprised by what they could see.

Teal'c had stopped just outside of a small silver metal structure, one that looked to have been here for some time. It looked more like a temporary construction site office than anything else with camouflage netting across its top, giving reason as to why it hadn't been visible during the UAV's primary flyover. The structure was only small, perhaps only a small observation post or something. It was impossible to be certain but it did look like there had been some activity here although whoever had been here had all but left.

Teal'c was standing in the mud just outside, looking down at something on the ground in front of him. Jack stepped up beside him and looked down as well, seeing the obvious tire marks in the mud. Water had filled up the indentations caused by the tires, implying that rain had come and gone since the vehicle that the tires belonged to had left.

Tracing the tire marks with his eyes Jack could see that they seemed to come and went, first coming down from further up the road before coming to an abrupt halt a short distance from the building. Outside of the building were several stacks of metal crates and already Carter and Daniel were making their way towards them with the intention of searching them.

The tire marks then seemed to head back off up the road, as if the vehicle that had left them behind had come, stopped and parked itself before turning around and heading back. It was impossible to tell how long the vehicle had been stopped here for but there was some indication as to what had happened during that time. Jack bent down and picked up another of the empty shell casing, seeing that there were several of them lying amongst the mud. Taking a quick count he could see that there were perhaps at least fifty of them scattered near the tire marks, perhaps having come from more than one gun.

"Tire marks, O'Neill," Teal'c said, "and signs of battle." He glanced at the shell casing that Jack had picked up, his face showing a slight hint of curiosity. Jack frowned at their findings, unsure of what to think. Obviously there had been a fight here that had involved a few gun wielders and a vehicle.

He looked towards the metal structure, noticing that several bullet holes had been punctured through the metal. What the hell did this all mean? The building looked like something that an SG research team would set up and the containers certainly looked to be the type one could find in use on Earth. But then what the hell were the bullets from? Was there someone going around murdering researchers? Who were the researchers? And where were they from?  
So many questions but yet hardly any answers. It frustrated Jack to say the least and he dropped the empty bullet casing, annoyed at the fact that they knew nothing about what was going on here. Had the same people that had shot up this place also been the ones who had shot up SG-8's tent and two members of the team?

Jack looked towards the small metal building, watching as Carter pulled open one of the metal crates and rummaged through its contents. The Colonel stepped towards her, Teal'c following a few metres behind as Carter pulled out a small metal case from with the metal crate. Inside the building behind her, Daniel was searching around the many more crates stacked in there as well as the few papers left on the tables inside.

Carter flicked open the small metal container, suitably surprised at what was inside.

"Naquadah samples," Carter said, sifting through the many small pieces of dark ore inside. Naquadah was the very heavy ore that the stargates were constructed from and was also something that seemed to be part of a Goa'uld symbiote's chemical makeup. All in all it was a very important material for the Goa'uld, used in construction of ships and weaponry. It also had the potential to be used in nuclear weapons in place of uranium or plutonium.

She looked into the opened crate where she had removed the smaller container from, finding many more of the containers inside. Jack had the feeling that all they would be finding in these many crates would be more naquadah. It was worth taking a fair amount back to the SGC but not just yet seeing as they had far more important things to attend to. Finding SG-8 was one of these things.

Katelyn stepped over, as curious as everybody else was. She saw the empty bullet casings on the ground as well as the tire marks, suitably surprised by these findings.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Oh, we found a whole load of ore," Jack replied, "nothing much else…"

Daniel appeared in the doorway of the small metal structure, a grim look on his face. Jack looked towards him, waiting for him to explain what had made him so solemn.

"Uh, guys, you should come take a look at this," he said.

Teal'c and Katelyn kept watch outside while Jack and Carter followed Daniel into the relatively warm confines of the temporary metal shed-like structure. Inside were a few tables, a small compact heater that was linked up to a bunch of exterior solar panels and a laptop computer on a small table in the corner. A few more stacks of crates lined the walls while two sleeping mats were set onto the rubber flooring nearby. It seemed that whoever had been here had all the necessary comforts of home save for a bathroom and a means of washing one's self. It was obvious this building was only part of something much bigger, perhaps one of many similar structures that SG-1 was yet to find. The metal walls had done little to stop the bullets fired into the building from outside, the rounds having torn holes right through them. As well as that the bullets had also torn bloodied holes in the two uniformed men lying spread-eagled on the floor within the structure.

Daniel approached one of the bodies and knelt down, searching the pockets of the man's green and black jacket and trousers. In one pocket was a small leather wallet which Daniel removed and flicked open, finding an ID card inside.

"This man's name is George Dressler, from Michigan," Daniel said, briefly summarizing what the ID card said, "it says here he's a Sergeant in something called the 'SDIOA'."  
Jack frowned. What the hell was the SDIOA? Sounded like an abbreviation of some sort, perhaps some sort of organization. Or maybe it didn't really mean anything.

However, these findings just increased the amounts of questions that had no answers. There was obviously something going on here on P5H-734 that was more than just a bunch of angry locals. In fact, it was obvious people from Earth had been here before. But how could they have come here? Space travel was out of the question while using the stargate would mean that someone back at the SGC would have known, unless…

No, the secondary gate was sealed. The secondary stargate, the one found in Antarctica, had been sealed up and stored away in a hangar in Area 51. How could anyone from Earth have come here? There was definitely more to this than they were able to see. If these guys were from the NID then perhaps the whole situation would make more sense but it seems that these guys were from the SDIOA, whatever that is.

"Anything else we should know?" Jack asked. Daniel shook his head, having searched the wallet and found a library card and credit card. This George Dressler was quite obviously just another average guy, nothing special about him. Well, nothing except for the fact he was lying dead on another planet light years from Earth.

Daniel put the wallet back into the dead man's pocket and stood up, looking just as confused about the situation as Jack was. Carter seemed the same, trying to think these findings over in her mind and try and find if they made any sense. Unfortunately they didn't make sense.

"How did they end up here?" She asked, "They would have to have used the stargate…but which one? There's only one in operation on Earth…"

The three of them were silent, each of them realizing that they had stumbled upon something rather significant. An Earth organization had set up some sort of naquadah gathering operation here. SG-1 usually liked to be informed of such occurrences although they doubted that even Hammond knew. He obviously hadn't since he had sent them here with the completely different task of finding SG-8.

Maybe the whole thing was linked? SG-8 had stumbled across this operation and paid for it but even so this didn't explain why there were two dead guys in this particular outpost. Whoever had done the killing didn't like SG-8 or this SDIOA organization.

"No use standing around here guessing," Jack said, deciding to get on with what they had come to this planet to do, "we still have a job to do."

"Colonel, you know what this means, don't you?" Carter had a serious tone in her voice, realizing the implications of these findings, "it means that there are already people setting up bases on other planets. It also means that there must be something going on that we're missing. How could they have gotten here without anyone at the SGC finding out?"

There was a pause before Daniel spoke, realizing a point that made the group feel only a little insecure.

"Maybe they do know?" He suggested, "Maybe there's some big operation going on that only certain people know about…"

"Hammond wouldn't have sent us here if he did know about it," Jack said. If there was some sort of conspiracy going on then they had just stumbled upon it. The implications of finding out about something like this could be rather nasty.

Daniel stepped over to the table where the laptop was, opening it up and finding that it was switched on. Opened up already was some sort of messaging program and he read out the last message that had been made according to the date on the computer. Jack and Carter stood listening, still trying to make sense of these finds.

"_Lost contact with main base today. Must be the interference. First shipment of naquadah scheduled to leave through the stargate tomorrow. Life here's dull but the pay's good. Apparently they're close to making a breakthrough in the mines at main base._" Daniel frowned, seeing that the message ended abruptly.

"That's all, unless you want me to read through all two hundred diary entries…"

"We don't have time for that," Jack said, thinking over what Daniel had read in the message. Obviously there was some sort of naquadah mining operation going on here and that this outpost served as a storage zone for the ore they find. They were still reasonably close to the stargate and since it seemed that the people here had vehicles it wouldn't take long to transport some over to the stargate. The references to the main base were a bit vague though, probably referring to whatever main facilities the people here had built. If SG-1 wanted to get to the bottom of all of this then going to this "main base" would be a good start.

"What do we do now?" Daniel asked, turning away from the computer. "Are we still going to make contact with the locals?"

"Yeah, we'll do that," Jack replied, thinking over what the best next move would be, "and we'll also try finding this 'main base'."

"Any idea on where to start?"

Jack thought about this for a brief moment.

"No idea," he replied bluntly, "although I would think that following the tire marks outside would be a good start."

Jack headed back outside, finding that the change from reasonably warm air to freezing cold was enough to make him sneeze again. Daniel and Carter followed him back out into the rainforest, the muddied ground squelching under their feet. Up ahead, Katelyn was standing watch by the road whilst looking awfully bored with herself. Teal'c had wandered off t keep watch further up the road.

Katelyn looked towards Jack as he stepped out from the structure. She seemed to be interested in whatever had been found inside the structure.

"Anything interesting?" Katelyn asked.

"Yeah, a couple of dead guys from Michigan and a whole lot of naquadah," Jack said, stopping a short distance from the Lieutenant. He found the Lieutenant's perplexed expression towards his response a little amusing.

"It's true," he added, "and I'm as confused as you are. That's why…"

"O'Neill!" It was Teal'c and he sounded serious, the Jaffa running back from where he had been keeping watch further up the road. He seemed to be in a hurry, his face serious.

"What is it?" Jack couldn't help but feel tense as well, knowing that when Teal'c was tense it was a good reason to believe that something not so good was about to happen. Teal'c had a sixth sense about these things sometimes.

"A vehicle, O'Neill," he replied, "coming this way. It may arrive here at any moment."  
Jack looked from Teal'c and up the road, able to hear the sound of an engine growing in volume as the vehicle that was making the noise came nearer.

"Let's hide," Jack suggested.

He gestured to the team to head for cover, turning around and racing towards the short slope at the edge of the small clearing that was thick with undergrowth.

Jack dived into the thick bushes, Katelyn and Teal'c hiding nearby. Carter ran over to a fallen tree and ducked behind it while Daniel took cover further along the slope, crouching behind the thick trunk of a tall and moss covered tree. The sound of the vehicle was fairly loud now but not too much so, indicating that whoever was driving it was taking the care to drive it at a steady speed. The road was muddy and thus slippery; not exactly the best conditions to be driving through.

Jack raised his MP5, keeping it aimed towards the grey-blue armoured SUV that came around the corner up ahead. It was a close-topped vehicle and lacked any sort of identifying insignia, even lacking a licence plate. The vehicle pulled to a stop near the structure, Jack keeping aim on it as the side doors opened.

The Colonel was surprised by the two people who came out. They were each dressed in what looked to be some sort of high-tech looking blue-grey armour suit, including helmets which completely hid their identity. Both were holding grey-black rifles, each weapon fitted with a scope and drum magazine. The weapons didn't resemble anything Jack had seen before, further adding to the amount of questions in his mind that had no answers. Who the hell were these people?

The two of them emerged from the vehicle, one of them heading around to the back and opening up the trunk. The other began grabbing the metal crates and loading them into the rear, filling the SUV's trunk up to its full extent. While the two of them were loading the crates full of naquadah they talked as well, their voices a little muffled by their helmets.

"…Man, I can't wait to get off this planet," one of them said, "Because when we do leave it will mean we're finished and can get some time off."

"Yeah right," the other said, loading a crate into the trunk as he spoke, "the boss doesn't believe in time off…"

This one trailed off, his gaze going towards a number of new markings set in the mud. Jack tensed and saw the others did as well, save for Teal'c who kept watch on the pair of armoured soldiers with narrowed eyes. He had his staff weapon set on a rock in front of him, the firing end only just protruding out of the bushes.

"What is it?" The other soldier asked.

"Footprints…"  
_Footprints, damn it!_ Jack realized their mistake and prepared to open fire. There were only two of them but there may have been more nearby. Gunfire didn't go unnoticed but then again sound didn't travel too far in a thick rainforest.

"No one's supposed to have come here except us," the first soldier said, "It could be some SDIOA guys trying to make a run for the stargate." Immediately the two stopped what they were doing, realizing that things weren't as they were supposed to be. The footprints in question scattered off to where SG-1 was hiding and the two soldiers noticed this, holding their rifles at the ready as they slowly began their way forwards.

"Should we fire, O'Neill?" Teal'c whispered from the Colonel's left. Jack wasn't too sure what they should do. He knew that weapons fire may not go unnoticed and neither would two missing soldiers who never reported back to headquarters. Jack took a moment to think through his answer, keeping his MP5 aimed towards the two soldiers.

"Just wait," Jack replied. The two soldiers were nearing the underbrush covered slope and soon enough they would probably notice the dark figures crouched amongst the leaves. Jack looked towards Katelyn and saw that her finger was resting on her submachine gun's trigger, her face calm as she waited for the right opportunity to fire. Carter, on the other hand, still looked a bit uncertain as Jack was about what they should do. Daniel had a pistol gripped in his right hand, only daring to just peek towards the two soldiers from around the tree trunk he was crouched behind.

Suddenly a number of shots rang out and Jack realized that Katelyn had begun firing. Immediately the two soldiers looked for the source of the fire and saw the muzzle flash, raising their rifles accordingly. Jack saw no other option but to start shooting, pulling his MP5's trigger and sweeping the fire onto the soldier to the right. Bullets bounced harmlessly off of the armour, sparks flying while the soldiers began to start walking backwards and away from the source of the fire. Carter and Daniel began shooting yet neither soldier fell, the bullets bouncing straight off of the armour.

_We may as well be using pea shooters._

A spurt of blood signalled a bullet had gotten through, finding a weak spot in the armour plating on the left leg of one of the soldiers. The soldier stumbled, pulling the trigger on his rifle. The gun thundered and bullets bounced right off of the rock in front of Jack, causing the Colonel to duck as the bullets kept slamming into the rock. Katelyn shifted her fire onto the soldier shooting towards Jack but suddenly her MP5 clicked on empty.

Teal'c finally took the opportunity to fire as Katelyn began the reload, his staff weapon booming and a blast of yellow-orange energy zoomed forth from its firing end. It hit one of the soldiers square in the chest, smoke blasting forth from the heat caused by the blast. The soldier was knocked backwards, landing in the mud with a _squelch_ and left with a smouldering mark on his armour. The other soldier saw that his friend was down and turned around and began to run for the SUV. Teal'c aimed and fired again but the soldier dived forwards, the blast zipping over him and slamming into the front of the SUV. Fire erupted forth and smoke began pouring out of the engine, indicating that the SUV had been effectively put out of commission.

Jack took aim again and opened fire, bullets sparking off of the soldier's seemingly impenetrable armour. Teal'c shifted his aim and fired once more, the blast hitting the soldier in the back as he began to rise back onto his feet. He fell face-first into the mud and didn't get back up.

For a moment no one said anything, simply trying to make sense of what had just happened. Jack lowered his MP5 and took a deep breath, shaking his head and trying to figure out who those two guys could have possibly been. He stood up as did the others and they headed back into the clearing, everyone a little put-off by the fact that simple bullets seemed to have a lot of trouble penetrating the armour the soldiers were wearing. Jack stepped over to the one lying dead with a scorching hole in his front, taking the time to bend down and pick up the dead man's rifle.

"Who are these guys?" Katelyn asked, speaking on behalf of everyone else. Jack shrugged although Carter, being the scientist she was, knelt down and took a good look at the dead soldier. With the back of the knuckles of her right hand she tapped on one of the armour plates before removing one off of the dead man's arm.

Jack removed the drum magazine from the rifle, taking a good look at the bullets inside. They had the same blue-grey casings that he had found lying around, implying that these were the same people who had killed two members of SG-8 and the two people inside the structure. Well, perhaps they weren't the exact same people but they were definitely part of the same group.

"It appears standard Earth weapons have little effect against their armour," Teal'c said, "My staff weapon seemed to have been what stopped them."

"It's sort of like Jaffa armour but not quite," Carter said, holding the small armour plate she had removed from the dead soldier up to the light, "it's not too heavy but not too light either."  
"Are these people from Earth?" Katelyn asked.

This was a good question and unfortunately it was one none of them could answer. Daniel took the time to search the other soldier while Katelyn took the soldier's rifle for herself. Daniel did find a wallet and he handed it to Jack, the Colonel flipping it open and being surprised at what he saw.

"Robert Sanchez, from Minnesota," Jack said, reading the identification inside the wallet. He stepped over to where Robert lay, face down in the mud, and rolled him onto his back. Jack took a moment to find the release mechanism for the man's helmet and when he did he activated it, hearing a slight _hiss_ as he removed the helmet from the dead soldier's head. The face underneath matched the photo in the wallet.

Jack stood up, pocketing the dead man's wallet. He could take it back to the SGC and have the man's credentials looked at, see what he did for a living and if he was linked to the stargate program in some way. However, Jack was still confused as to who these people were and why they seemed to be more advanced than SG-1. The rifle he had picked up off of the first dead soldier was somewhat heavy with a refined, sleek design that looked like something that wouldn't come around for another twenty years.

He looked towards the tire marks in the dirt road, realizing that they had an opportunity to find out what was going on. He looked towards Teal'c, determined to get to the bottom of this whole situation.

"Teal'c, you'll be coming with me," Jack said, "we're going to follow this trail of tire marks back to their source." He turned to Carter and Daniel.

"Carter, you, Daniel and the Lieutenant can keep on searching for the UAV. It's fairly likely you'll find the locals this way."

"I think we should stick together," Katelyn said, a little miffed towards the fact that Jack wasn't taking her with him. The Colonel could see this since it was obvious the tire trail would lead to more of these soldiers and it seemed that Katelyn was the type who liked getting into a shootout. "We'll need everyone together if we encounter anymore of these power armoured soldiers…"

"Lieutenant, you're going with Daniel and Captain Carter. That's an order, so quit complaining," Jack said, frowning. Katelyn was annoyed but didn't say anything, deciding that insubordination just wasn't worth it.

"We'll meet back at the stargate before sundown," Jack said, looking up. It looked to be just after midday, giving either part of the team plenty of time to do what they had to do. "Teal'c and I will get some intelligence on this new enemy while you three will go and try and get into contact with the locals. Sound simple enough?"

"The locals ought to know something about these soldiers," Daniel said, "it would be strange if they didn't…"

Jack decided he would be keeping this new rifle. It would make a great souvenir and it would hopefully work better on these armoured soldiers. Katelyn was still looking a bit annoyed as she started to follow Daniel and Carter into the rainforest but Jack knew she would get over it.

Splitting the team didn't seem like the best idea but they it would be the best way to find out what was going on. While Daniel, Carter and Katelyn were off trying to find the UAV and get in touch with the native population, Teal'c and the Colonel would be trying to find out more about these soldiers. The latter seemed the most dangerous, another reason why Jack hadn't decided to get Katelyn to come with him and Teal'c.

The other three disappeared into the forest, leaving Jack and Teal'c alone by the blue-grey SUV. Nothing interesting was found in the SUV save for a Mars bar wrapper and lukewarm cup of coffee. Once this brief search had been completed Jack decided it was best he and Teal'c started on their way.

"Let's get moving Teal'c," Jack said. Teal'c nodded and the pair started down the road, following the tire marks in the mud as they went. As they walked Jack tried figuring out what was going on in his mind, trying to piece things together. However, there were still too many things that didn't make sense and so he quit trying to work it out and instead decided on concentrating on the task at hand. It wouldn't be long before they did find something but rather than answer questions it would only create more.

* * *

**Note: **A longer chapter than most, I know. That's primarily because of all that happens in it. What I intended to do was get most of the character development out of the way (hence the slow start) and gradually build to the all out action-adventure story I had in mind.


	11. The Locals

**Chapter Nine: The Locals**

**Location:** P5H-734

First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine wasn't especially happy about recent occurrences. In fact, she was in quite a sour mood as she trudged through muddied and wet rainforest, following Captain Carter and Daniel along. Her green uniform and black vest had been dirtied from lying down in the mud earlier, when those two soldiers in the armour had found them out and a brief shootout had occurred. It had been one brief few minutes of excitement on what seemed a very uninteresting world thus far.

For one thing it seemed to be just jungle and plains and so far they had only been in the jungle, save for the clearing where the stargate had been. There seemed to be nothing very different about this planet than ordinary countryside back on Earth, justified by the fact that the stargates had apparently been used to transport people to inhabitable worlds, not wastelands or asteroids. This seemed fair enough, but even so where were all the aliens? So far they had only encountered a couple of humans who had been out to kill them as well as having found a couple of dead humans to top things off. There was obviously something going on here on this world and it seemed that SG-1 would be finding out about it as well as hopefully finding any survivors from SG-8.

Katelyn had been mostly thinking about how the Colonel had stuck her with getting in contact with the locals. When she had come here she had had no intention of getting in touch with a bunch of medieval natives, preferring to leave that to someone who actually enjoyed that sort of thing (such as Daniel). While Jack and Teal'c had headed off on a potentially dangerous trip to find where the two armoured soldiers had come from, the Colonel had decided to stick her with Carter and Daniel and become part of the group that actually went to contact the natives. Katelyn would have preferred to head on the more dangerous part of the mission than to trudge through the rainforest with a geeky archaeologist and an annoying scientist. She doubted that they would encounter many more of those soldiers when they found the natives, sending this part of the mission into inevitable boredom. Katelyn was the type of person who enjoyed the danger, part of the reason she had first joined the military. Of course, it wasn't always excitement but when it was it sure beat working in a supermarket or office.

On her first day of her new position at the SGC she had been sent to this faraway world in some other part of the galaxy and was being made to find a bunch of medieval natives who probably didn't even have electricity. It wasn't exactly her idea of an exciting time, especially when she was made to do it with people like Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter.

Katelyn had been quiet ever since they had departed from Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c, letting Daniel and Carter talk amongst themselves while she hung back a few metres and kept watch on the rear of the group. She was holding the rifle she had picked up from one of the dead soldiers, taking the time to examine closely.

It was obvious that these soldiers had come here well prepared. Then again, what were they preparing against and what were they doing here? It seemed that they had killed the two guys in that structure as well as those two members of SG-8 and had been in the process of trying to kill SG-1. According to the ID found in their wallets they had come from Earth, a definite surprise to everybody in the team and one that fuelled further questions about what was happening here. Katelyn wasn't too concerned about the details behind this incursion force of high-tech soldiers; she was just more concerned about what she and the rest of SG-1 would do here in the time they had. They were due back within twenty-four hours of arriving here and were probably six hours through. If they were late then Hammond would be sending a team to rescue them, further adding to the complicated situation.

Katelyn could see that encountering anymore of those soldiers would prove to be a bit troublesome. The armour they wore seemed capable of deflecting most standard bullets, hence the reason she had jumped at the chance to pick up one of the rifles that the soldiers had been using. The rifles were made out of a grey-black metal, some sort of durable but lightweight material. The drum magazine had been full of large grey-blue bullets to match the overall colour scheme, perhaps large enough and strong enough to bust through the armour these soldiers wore. If this was the case then Katelyn knew that she would be keeping the rifle on her at all times.

Looking around they were still trudging through rainforest, pushing their way through the undergrowth while Carter directed them using the homing device she was holding in her left hand. The rainforest smelt of water and moss, mostly wet from recent rainfall. Through the thick canopy above the clouds were still dark grey and ominous, hinting at further rain to come. Birds tweeted and called from the distance while bugs, mostly the types that bite, were whizzing about the lower parts of the forest. Katelyn slapped one of the critters off of one cheek, not at all pleased with this hike through the forest. It seemed that they had been travelling for longer than they should have been, heading further and further out of the valley. She had the feeling that they were lost but she wasn't the one to voice this feeling, Daniel beating her to the punch.

"Uh…I have a feeling we've been here before," he said, a little unsure about this. Katelyn was quite sure that they were lost, she could tell by the way Carter seemed to be having trouble choosing which way they should go while referring to the tracking device.

"How can you tell?" Katelyn asked, frowning, "every tree here looks the same."

Daniel glanced at her and shrugged while stopping and taking a brief look around. Carter and Katelyn stopped as well, the Lieutenant able to see the uncertainty on the Captain's features.

"I recognize that tree," Daniel said, pointing to one of the larger ones that were off to their right. Katelyn looked at it, unable to really tell whether she had seen it before. It was a tree, after all, and a lot of trees had a habit of looking similar to other ones.

"We're not lost," Carter said, lowering the homing device and looking towards Daniel and Katelyn.

_Of course you would say that_, Katelyn thought. It was a well known fact that hardly anyone would actually admit that they had gotten themselves lost; it was simply human nature to deny that they had made a mistake, even if the evidence was noticeable enough to point to something otherwise.

"Unless there's a malfunction with the homing device," Carter said, "but I don't think there is."

"Maybe it has something to do with the same interference that sent the UAV crashing into the ground?" Katelyn asked, "The homing device might look like its working but really it's as jumbled up as your sense of direction."

Carter ignored the remark, pretending to not have heard it. She did take the part about the interference into consideration, however, fiddling with the buttons and dials on the homing device and shaking her head.

"I should have seen this earlier," she said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Yeah, you should have," Katelyn said bluntly, "rather than have us wandering around the forest for about half an hour. Actually, I think it's been longer than that…"  
Katelyn went to glance at her watch but stopped when she saw Carter's unamused expression. The idea was to get on her nerves after all and see how much snide abuse she could take. For some reason, Katelyn didn't like Captain Carter. Perhaps there was some deeper reason but if there was Katelyn couldn't think of it. At least not now, anyway.

"It's not my fault if the homing device doesn't work properly," Carter said defensively without any hint of annoyance, "besides, we have that map SG-8 made. That should help us out."

Each of them was carrying a copy of the map that SG-8, the missing team, had constructed and sent through some time before their disappearance. It wasn't too detailed since there was only so much a few UAV flights could see but it didn't suffer from unexpected interference like an electronic device did and was perhaps a more reliable means of navigation.

"Okay, let me see," Katelyn said, doubtful that the map would be of much help. They were probably well off of the area it was mapping and she proved this by taking her copy out of her pocket and unfolding it while Carter and Daniel watched. She traced their presumed trail from the stargate to the structure where they had encountered the two soldiers before using her finger to trace their way through the uneven rainforest all the way to the edge of the map.

"Well, we're not even on the dam thing," Katelyn said, folding the map up and slipping it into her pocket.

"How can you be so sure about that?" Carter asked, "it looked like you were just guessing…"

"I just know, okay?" Katelyn wasn't in the mood to be argued against. Especially from someone like Captain Carter.

"How about we just take a break here and try and figure things out?" Daniel suggested, seeing the obvious annoyance in Katelyn and how she was talking to the Captain. If he was right than an argument was only a short time away unless he stepped in and eased the situation a little. Carter never seemed to get angry but chances were someone like Katelyn could make it happen.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Katelyn said, nodding, "besides, I need to go to the toilet." She paused, taking a look around them at the thick rainforest and the obvious fact that there were no luxury toilet facilities around. After a brief moment the Lieutenant decided on what she thought was the best course of action.

"Those bushes over there look like the perfect place," she said, starting for a distant clump of thick bushes, "don't leave without me, alright?"

Katelyn headed off into the trees, disappearing from view and leaving Daniel and Carter alone in the forest. The pair was silent for a moment as they watched Katelyn leave, making sure she was well out of earshot and out of view before they started speaking.

"Not the happy type, is she?" Daniel asked. He could tell that Katelyn wasn't at all pleased with their current situation as well as the obvious fact that she didn't really like him or Carter. Daniel was used to this sort of thing and so didn't really care too much about it, just as long as she didn't get on his nerves too much.

He looked towards Carter and saw some dislike on her face as she watched Katelyn leave, turning her head to Daniel and taking a brief break from fiddling with the homing device she was holding in her left hand.

"Happy? She hates us," Carter replied, "can't you tell?"  
"Yes, I can," Daniel said, "I just don't let that sort of thing get to me. You shouldn't, either."

Carter shrugged.

"I don't."

There was a pause before they continued, as if they were both trying to figure out what the other was thinking. Saying that you ignored it was one thing, putting that into action was another.

"Well, I'm feeling a bit hungry," Daniel said, finding a nearby fallen tree log to sit on. He stepped over to it and brushed a spot down before sitting, taking an MRE from his vest pocket and proceeding to unwrap it. Carter resumed fiddling with the homing device while Katelyn was somewhere taking her time, probably on purpose.

"Where do you think the interference is coming from?" Daniel asked, just before he took a bite from his MRE, doing his best to swallow down the rather bland tasting snack. Carter looked up from the device, taking a moment to answer after thinking about it.

"It has to be those energy signatures," she said, "Whatever they're from they know how to jumble up an electronic device. With this homing device it was hard to tell until we ended up…"

"Going around in circles?"

"Yeah, that's about right."

There was another pause, either of the pair half-expecting Katelyn to reappear from out of the undergrowth. She didn't. Perhaps she was angrier than they had originally thought, deciding to take her sweet time.

"I'm still a bit confused as to what's going on here," Daniel said, thinking about recent events, "who were those soldiers? And what's the SDIOA? It seems to me that we've stumbled into something. No wonder SG-8 went missing: whoever's arranged this whole thing here probably got rid of them…"

"You think so?"

"Yeah, it seems like the most logical assumption to make," Daniel said, "SG-8 came here and stumbled upon the same sort of thing we found. They were probably found out and as much as I hate to say it, we probably won't find any of them alive."

The pair was silent for a moment as both of them thought about this and both realized that they were probably in much of the same position as SG-8 would have been. Lost and pursued, seeing as it was a safe bet that those two soldiers they killed earlier would be missing from the rest of their group.

This new thought seemed to strike the pair into action. If they were indeed going to get followed then maybe it was better to start moving again although Katelyn was yet to return from her trip to the bathroom, which was in reality a trip behind a clump of thick bushes.

Daniel stood up, finishing his MRE and looking around to see if he could find Katelyn. She was nowhere in sight, something which made Daniel only a little uneasy.

Carter put away the homing device, seeming to finally admit that they were lost. If they were off of the map then it would be near impossible to find their way through the rainforest and back onto the map, a fact that only added further to their situation.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Daniel asked, seeing the serious look on Carter's face.

"That's about right," she replied, "I've got no clue to where we are. We'll have to figure something out…"

Daniel didn't know what to do about it. If they were lost then it would be best if they just tried retracing their steps, something which would probably be hard in a thick rainforest such as this. They were in dire straits indeed, something that was only increased by the fact that Katelyn seemed to have gone missing.

"First, let's find the Lieutenant," Daniel suggested, "and once we have her back we can figure out a way to get out of this situation. Retracing our steps back to the road seems the safest thing to do."

Carter nodded in agreement. Daniel turned in the general direction he had seen Katelyn leave in and thought of yelling before realizing that was just asking for someone else to come and find them. There could very well be more of those soldiers wandering around, a fact that seemed more credible since SG-1 had already been forced to kill two of them.

Daniel recalled that recent occurrence vividly and could also remember that it was Katelyn who had fired first. It seemed that regular bullets didn't do much against the armour the soldiers had been wearing with Teal'c staff weapon the only thing that seemed to cause any major damage. Whoever those soldiers worked for obviously had access to some very high-tech equipment.

Daniel was about to head into the forest to find her when Carter's concerned voice broke the silence from behind him. She didn't sound too pleased and only a little nervous.

"Uh, Daniel…"

Daniel turned around, seeing that Carter was standing still and trying to keep her face straight. To her right stood a tall man wearing a brown-white jacket and matching trousers, his beard only a few days thick. He looked like someone out of the fifteenth century judging by the style of the clothing, having seemingly popped out of nowhere. Held up in his hands was what appeared to be an old fashioned flintlock rifle, its barrel a dark grey which contrasted to the bright wood finish. His eyes were narrowed as he took aim at the side of Carter's head.

Daniel was about to step forward and engage the man in conversation before he heard some movement off to his left, turning around to find another man dressed in similar attire emerging from the undergrowth. He had a similar looking rifle raised, the look on his face enough to tell Daniel that this man saw him as a threat. This was understandable since Daniel and Carter certainly looked like strangers and it was human nature to fear the unknown.

These two men were obviously good at getting through the forest unnoticed since neither Carter nor Daniel had seen them coming. Perhaps they had even found Katelyn but if so, where was she?

Daniel had the feeling that now would be a good time to try and engage the two natives in conversation. He had the feeling they would speak English, something that had occurred with plenty of native populations before. He always assumed that the stargate acted as a sort of translator, enabling one to understand the faraway peoples they came across.

"Well, uh…hello," Daniel said, the two men looking his way with seriousness upon their faces. They probably weren't the type for small talk but it was worth a shot. It was certainly better than _getting_ shot.

"My name is Daniel," Daniel said, "we're from Earth…otherwise known as the Tauri…We come, in uh…well, we come in peace…" Daniel couldn't help but use a cliché as he tried to talk the two serious looking natives down, putting his hands up to show that he wasn't going to hurt them. The two men simply exchanged glances, the one with the beard raising an eyebrow.

"The Tauri?" The man said, his voice roughly edged in places. He sounded like the type of man who had spent most of his years living in the rainforest, developing the no-nonsense personality associated with living in a wild environment like this.

_Well, they speak English, _Daniel thought, _that's a good start._

Daniel saw the doubt in the man's face and decided to settle it, making sure that neither he nor Carter came across as potential threats.

"How do we know that you are not with the others?" The man asked, his grip on the rifle he had pointed at Carter tightening. Daniel winced, half-expecting the man to fire. Luckily, he didn't.

This question implied that these men knew of the other soldiers, the ones that had the armour and the slightly more advanced weaponry. No wonder they were so cautious of him and Carter since they were probably thinking that they were with these soldiers.

"Well, we killed a few of them earlier," Daniel said, "they seemed to not like us being here."

The man with the rifle pointed at Daniel who looked to be the younger of the two natives lowered his rifle and looked towards the other, the doubts in his mind having close to gone. This was a good sign since it meant that Daniel was getting through to them.

"Where is proof of these killings you mentioned?" The older man asked, "You may be just spies for the metal soldiers, full of lies as spies often are…"

Daniel assumed the term "metal soldiers' was referring to the armour the other soldiers wore which gave the impression of a completely "metal" soldier. He also realized that he was sort of short on proof of their kills, although he could see that Carter was already dealing with this problem.

She removed from a pouch in her vest the small armour plate she had removed from one of the dead soldiers from earlier, making sure to hold it up so the two local men could see it clearly.

"This is from one of the ones we killed," Carter said, having the armour plate unexpectedly snatched from her hands by the bearded local man. She didn't complain though, instead she let the bearded local man have a close look at it, taking his time when determining whether it was real or not.

"Look, I don't think those metal soldiers would waste their time with spies," Daniel said, receiving a curious look from the bearded man, "they have the technology to simply roll up into your town and slaughter all of you. Us two, on the other hand, are different. We came here to find a few of our own who went missing as well as contact the natives, in this case you two. I'm sure there are more of you, though."

The bearded man handed Carter back the armour plate, looking towards Daniel with noticeable uncertainty. The archaeologist could see he was getting through, though.

"Did you find a small, winged device by any chance?" Daniel asked, seeing that this question struck a chord in the older man, "since that would be ours…"

"We found the device you speak of," the bearded man said, "and I and my brother took it back to the town. We do not know what it is…"

"You shouldn't worry about it too much," Daniel said, "it's just a reconnaissance craft. Completely harmless unless you happen to be standing in the way of it when it crashes."

There was a pause which was followed by a brief rustle in the nearby undergrowth. The four looked towards it, watching as Lieutenant Katelyn Raine emerged, looking annoyed at everything in general as she emerged, briefly adjusting her trousers as she went. She looked towards Daniel and Carter and then to the two local men, surprised at the two new arrivals but otherwise didn't do anything rash such as raise her rifle.

"Is she one of yours as well?" the bearded man asked, nodding towards the Lieutenant.

Daniel nodded.

"Yes, she is," he replied, "Her name's Lieutenant Raine. And…" He gestured towards Carter, deciding to get the niceties out of the way. "This here's Captain Carter."

"Who are these two?" Katelyn asked as she approached, still trying to adjust her underwear through her trousers. She didn't look too pleased, probably since wiping one's rear end clean when the only thing you had to use was leaves was probably a bit…uncomfortable.

"My name is Teral and this is my brother Kelsol," the older man said.

"Do you have a name for your world?" Daniel asked, "Because what we've called it isn't particularly imaginative…"

"Taleria," the old man replied, "why?"

"Just curious," Daniel said, taking a mental note of all that he had learnt here.

There was a brief silence as the group decided on what to do next. Katelyn seemed to be the one to take the initiative despite her reservations about getting involved with a bunch of medieval natives.

"How about you take us to your town?" She asked coolly, "Isn't that what we came here for in the first place? To find out more about these people?"

"Ah, yeah, that's about right," Daniel said, turning to the older man, Teral.

"Could you take us to your town?" Daniel requested, "and to your leader as well? That's only if you want to, though. If you don't want anything to do with us we'll understand…"

"Follow me," The older man said simply, him and his brother starting on their way into the forest. The others took this as a hint to follow him, knowing that it was far better than wandering around lost. It wouldn't be long before they arrived at their destination but until then it was yet more hiking through the jungle. Both local men seemed to know where they were going, having spent most of their lives living here. They pushed through the thick undergrowth with ease, barely saying a word as the three travellers from the Tauri, or "First World" followed them with slightly less confidence.

Above the sky was as dark and ominous as it had always been. Thunder rumbled in the distance and a few light drops of rain flitted down through the canopy and onto the group making their way through the forest.

"What do you know of the other soldiers here?" Daniel asked as they made their way through the forest.

The older man, Teral, seemed to pause for a moment as he thought about this. He managed a frown at Daniel, finding the question a bit odd.

"Why? Are they not from the Tauri as well?"

Daniel shrugged, uncertain. They may or may not have been, it was still hard to tell just who those soldiers were and where they had come from. It seemed very likely that they were from Earth due to the ID that had been found on one of the dead soldiers from earlier, it just didn't make a lot of sense that they were. Where did they get the armour and the technology from?

"We're not sure about that," Daniel replied, "you see, I and my friends only arrived here earlier today…"

"I do not have the answers you seek, Daniel," the old man said as the group pushed their way through palm fronds and jungle ferns, "however; the man in charge of our town may have the answers you want."

Daniel assumed that Teral was referring to whoever was in charge of this town they were heading for. He decided to save his questions for this leader, instead keeping quiet as he and the others followed the two native men through the jungle.

* * *

Half an hour of hiking through thick jungle, pushing through undergrowth and squeezing past trees passed by before the group reached their destination, a large tract of civilization in the middle of the jungle.

Daniel had been thinking recent events over through his mind, including encountering the two local men. It seemed to him that these locals had next to nothing to do with the soldiers that had come and shot their way through that outpost that SG-1 had found earlier, as well as having killed two members of SG-8. The locals probably knew nothing of these events but it was still a good idea to check anyway.

Carter had been walking just a little to Daniel's right, doing her best to keep up with the two local men who seemed to have no trouble pushing their way through the jungle. Katelyn was tagging along at the rear of the group as she usually did, looking annoyed as she usually did as well as occasionally swearing under her breath whenever she stumbled on the loose assortment of fallen logs and leaves that littered the rainforest floor.

The first sign of any sort of civilization was the dirt road they came across, stepping out of the tree-line and onto a muddied road. Half-buried in the mud at the other side was what looked to be a horse-drawn carriage, just without the horses. One end of the road disappeared into the forest and seemed to go on for quite a different while the other lead directly into the town Teral had mentioned earlier, the road ending at a large metal gate that was set into a stone wall.

Daniel could make out the tops of short buildings beyond the wall as well as a few guard towers that were spaced at even intervals along the wall, the silhouettes of the guards themselves visible inside the towers. The wall was quite high and several armed guards were patrolling along its top. The large amount of security was probably because of the arrival of the force of high-tech soldiers although Daniel doubted how effective their weapons would be against such opponents.

Carter, Katelyn and Daniel began to follow the two local men along the muddied road, stopping at the main gate. Beyond it Daniel could see narrow and winding streets, market stalls outside of old Renaissance style buildings as well as several more people in 16th century style clothing. It was obvious the people here were more advanced than most of the other cultures he had come across during his travels through the stargate. Many of those other cultures had been quite primitive, perhaps at the same level as Earth had been during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Here things were a bit more advanced, quite noticeable by the types of weapons the guards here seemed to have.

Teral stopped before the gate, looking up at the pair of guards standing on the part of the wall above it. The guards were dressed in grey-black uniforms with hats reminiscent of those that highwaymen of the sixteenth century wore, further cluing in Daniel to the advancement level of the people here.

"They look to be about the same level as we were back in the sixteenth century," Daniel said as Carter stopped next to him, "we could learn a fair amount from them…"

"They're just a bunch of medieval natives," Katelyn said bluntly from behind them. Daniel rolled his eyes before glancing at her, noticing that she seemed more concerned with the mud on her boots than anything else. "And they obviously haven't heard of pavement before," she added, wiping the sole of one of her boots against a nearby log in order to remove the thick amount of mud that had stuck to it.

"The Goa'uld would never have let them advance this much," Carter said, reverting Daniel's attention back to her, "they've obviously had to leave them alone for some reason. And for some time, too."

Teral stood at the front of the group, waving at the guards above the gate in order to get their attention. The two guards looked down at the group, immediately cautious of the three newcomers that were with them.

"Teral, you have returned," one of the guards said, "yet you bring three strangers with you. Who are they?"

"They are from the Tauri," Teral announced, obviously quite sure of the truthfulness of this claim, "and they mean us no harm. They wish to speak with Lord Cawama…"

"And you believed them?" the guard asked, frowning, "what if they are merely spies sent by those metal soldiers who have been terrorizing our outlying villages?"

"We're not spies," Daniel said, taking a step forwards. He had the feeling that these people would need a fair bit of convincing before they were actually able to trust him, Carter and Katelyn. "We came here to search for some missing people of our own, two of which we found dead, killed by the metal soldiers." He thought it best to play along with the terminology these people were using to describe the soldiers that were apparently in a large force deep in the rainforest.

"We only wish to see whether or not your Lord Cawama may know about our missing people, as well as any other information to do with the soldiers. That way, we can do our best to get rid of them for you…"

"Daniel!" Katelyn hissed from behind him, only loud enough for him and Carter to hear, "What are you doing? We can't make any promises yet!"

Daniel ignored her. Besides, he was fairly certain that these soldiers would be a whole lot easier than getting rid of some Jaffa, as had been the case many times in the past.

"Surely you can see they speak the truth?" Teral asked, vouching on the part of the newcomers, "and as well as that they wish to help to get rid of these metal soldiers who plague the region. I believe these travellers from the Tauri would be of great assistance…"

"Alright, Teral," the guard said, doubt crossing his features, "I'll let them in. But if they cause any trouble, you will be the one to answer for it." The guard pointed an accusing finger at the older man and then turned around, walking out of view to wherever the gate opening mechanism was. Moments later the gate creaked open, allowing the group entrance into the large and fortified town beyond.

There wasn't much in the way of pavement; instead the streets were as muddy as the ground in the rainforest. People milled past, going about their own business while some stopped to look over at the newcomers. Most seemed to into their own thing to really pay much attention to the three strangers walking into town, giving the indication of a rather lukewarm welcome.

The buildings on either side of the street seemed to be derived from Eastern European design, something one could have expected to see in the sixteenth century on Earth. Most of the buildings were constructed from either wood or dark stone, lacking glass windows and instead with wooden shutters over the empty spaces where windows would have been.

The guard from earlier came from a set of stairs against the inside of the wall, approaching the group with that same look of doubt he had had on his face earlier. He took in each of the three strangers in turn, completely distrustful of each of them.

"I will take the three newcomers to see Lord Cawama," the guard said as he turned to look at Teral and his brother, "You two can leave."

Teral and his brother nodded and turned around and left. Daniel had been about to bid them farewell but they were gone before he had a chance, the pair too intent on doing whatever it was they did here.

This left him, Carter and Katelyn with the disgruntled town guard. He looked at Daniel, frowning as if he didn't think all was right with the three strangers.

"Follow me," the guard said, "I will take you to the Lord Cawama. Just don't cause any trouble."

The guard began walking down the muddy street. Daniel took this as a hint to follow him, Carter and Katelyn in tow as the group were escorted through the town.

"What a friendly bunch of people," Katelyn said sarcastically, "I can see they really welcome us here."

"We're different to them," Carter said, "it's only natural for them to distrust us."  
Katelyn frowned, obviously not too concerned about the locals here.

"How about we get out of this smelly town as soon as we can?" Katelyn asked, "I'm sure that there's better things to do on this planet than hang out with a bunch of medieval natives."

Daniel could see that the civilians they passed seemed to look at them with some noticeable distrust. This wouldn't be the first time a local populace hadn't greeted them warmly so Daniel was used to reactions such as this. Besides, he and the rest of the team were on this planet to find SG-8 and answers as to what was going on. Getting into contact with the local population had been only secondary to finding SG-8.

The nearer they got to the centre of town the more pavement appeared in place of the mud on the ground. Soon enough they were dead centre in the middle of the town, coming to where the bigger and more posh looking buildings were. It was obvious that this was where the upper classes lived, the citizens getting less and less wealthy the further you went from the centre of town.

The guard took them to the largest building in the area, a large stone manor house which was set into the middle of a large number of gardens. Flowers and trees prospered here while gardeners tended to them. Guards patrolled in and around the estate, two of them standing at the open front gate. As the town guard escorted Daniel, Carter and Katelyn to the gate the other two guards stepped into the middle of the gate and one called for them to halt.

The town guard and the three newcomers stopped.

"I bring with me three travellers from the Tauri," the town guard said to the other two, "they wish to speak with Lord Cawama."

Daniel could see the distrust on the faces of the two guards but he didn't say anything, preferring to let the guard do the convincing.

"The Tauri?" One of the other guards said, "The first world? Cawama has been expecting this sort of visit ever since the other two Tauri came here."

"The other two?" Carter asked. She, Daniel and Katelyn all realized what was meant by this. They were most likely referring to the surviving two members of SG-8 who had obviously sought refuge in this town. Perhaps they were still here? If so this mission just got a whole lot simpler.

"These other two people," Carter said, "are they still here?"

The guard who had mentioned this shook his head. Immediately Daniel knew that maybe things weren't going to be so easy.

"They left yesterday, saying they would try and escape back to the chaapa'ai," the guard replied.

It was obvious these people still retained some of the terms the Goa'uld who had once used them as slaves used. Where that Goa'uld was now was uncertain, they had obviously had to leave this world for some reason. "Chaapa'ai" was the Goa'uld word for "stargate" after all. Daniel was curious to learn more about the origin of this human population, having a feeling that the naquadah that had been found in the shot-up outpost had something to do with why these people had been brought here.

"Lord Cawama may have the answers you seek," the other guard said, "simply follow me. I will take you to him."

_Well, we seem to be making progress,_ Daniel thought as he, Carter and Katelyn followed the guard through the gardens and into the large estate itself, _I wonder how Jack and Teal'c are doing?_


	12. Confrontation

**Chapter Ten: Confrontation**

**Location: **P5H-734

It was about late afternoon on this part of P5H-734. The clouds were still thick and grey while the air still smelt of moisture, rain to be more precise. A fairly big storm was definitely on its way, a fact that was enough of a reason for Roland's soldiers to start packing up the camp and move the operation into the mountain complex nearby. It had since been cleared out of SDIOA personnel, indicating that they were one step closer to completing their work here on this planet.

However, there was no rest for someone like Roland Halverson. With access to the stargate network and a whole lot of addresses to go with it, Roland and his army had a plethora of places to go. Only a few were of any interest though, one of which being the very place that Roland had used as his own personal headquarters. The other few were of some interest to his long term scheme but right now he had to put his mind on the operation here, on the planet that had been dubbed "P5H-734". To the locals it was known as Taleria, a planet of forests and rolling plains. Long ago the Goa'uld had once ruled over the human population here but they had left, perhaps only a thousand years earlier. This was a fact that Roland had been trying to research ever since his arrival. Why would the Goa'uld abandon a world abundant in naquadah, the very ore they seemed to use in almost everything? From staff weapons to ships, naquadah was the bones of the Goa'uld technology that had wrought havoc on many worlds across the galaxy. It was also of some interest to Roland seeing as it was also the fuel that made the alien factories on his headquarters world run.

The rich naquadah deposits here were only secondary to the grand goals he had in mind. Here the SDIOA had their main base; a set of facilities within a mountain which were built around one of the strange energy signatures that emanated from the bowels of the mountain. This energy signature was at the highest point on Roland's list of priorities and the main reason why he had even bothered come here. Aside from the fact he was wreaking a personal vengeance on an organization that had wronged him in the past he was also close to getting hold of something vital to his long term plans.

Roland had always been the careful type, planning so that nearly all possible stuff-ups were covered. However, he knew just as well as any military General that even the best laid plans could go awry hence the reason he had put some flexibility into his scheme, allowing it to be replanned if necessary. One of these contingencies, outside intervention, had recently been covered. It had also been partially resolved, just not in the way he had been hoping.

Originally his plans had been to send Colonel Richardson of SG-8 back to Earth with a warning to the others there before sealing the stargate here on Taleria. However, for one thing they were yet to receive the materials necessary for sealing a stargate and to even further stuff-up Roland's plans, Sarah Taylor had gotten a bit brash and killed the Colonel.

Roland held no hard feelings towards the young woman, fully aware of her violent tendencies. He had simply taken these events as they had occurred and altered his plans accordingly.

Now he sat in the main tent in the main camp, seated at the table where the large map of the area was laid out. He had already marked in a few extra points, including an important SDIOA outpost that had been cleared out earlier today. About two hours earlier he had sent out a pair of his soldiers to clear the research outpost of its naquadah samples, a job that shouldn't be taking as long as it was. He wasn't thinking much of it now though, knowing full well how easy it was to get lost in a rainforest such as the one here in this region of Taleria. He was more concerned with what his forces were doing now, packing up the main camp as they went on to move the base camp into the SDIOA mountain complex.

Roland reached into a pocket in his trousers, removing a pack of cigarettes. He had always been an avid smoker since he had become old enough to buy some although he only smoked a few a day. He was no heavy smoker, quite far from it. The one cigarette he removed from the packet now was his second one for the day, Roland putting the packet away as he stuck the mouth end of the cigarette past his lips and into the corner of his mouth.

With the cigarette in, he only had to concentrate a little and the end caught alight, tobacco burning away as a thin trail of smoke wafted from the end. He puffed gently, taking it out of his mouth and blowing a few smoke rings into the air of the tent. He dabbed out the burning tobacco into a glass ashtray on the table in front of him, letting it burn there a while as he went over the map and ran his plans through his mind for a moment.

The map was fairly accurate; the result of scouts and reconnaissance drones going on long sorties before Roland and the rest of his force had arrived. Roland knew that the better the intelligence the better the mission, hence the reason an accurate map such as the one on the table was vital to the mission. Here he had marked in the locations of the stargate, the energy signatures and any SDIOA outposts, having the feeling that they had gotten all of them. This was one part of the operation completed if all the outposts had been cleared, removing the chance of any escaped SDIOA personnel bringing in help. They wouldn't be able to do such a thing if they were dead.

Roland picked up his cigarette and puffed on it again, managing a glance towards the doorway of the tent. Outside he could see soldiers and technicians moving around and packing things up as they began moving things into the mountain complex. Roland would be going last, preferring to take his time when it came to moving an entire camp to somewhere else.

He stood up, leaving his cigarette sticking out from one corner of his mouth. The thin trail of smoke wafted past his face as he walked towards the open doorway of the tent, standing just outside as he surveyed the work taking place in the clearing. Behind his tent was the mountain, a tall but not particularly high natural formation that was steep in some places and gentle in others. The tunnel that lead into the SDIOA complex was nearby, technicians and soldiers carrying equipment into the complex and disappearing into the mountain.

Ahead was Lukas Farber, walking by the edge of a wide pit that was about six to seven feet deep as he made his way in Roland's direction. Three other soldiers stood near him, throwing in the bodies of the SDIOA personnel that had been killed both out here and inside the mountain complex. The pit was more or less a mass grave, filled with about twenty corpses of SDIOA guards and the dead bodies of the SG-8 Lieutenant and Colonel Richardson. Roland had seen that it would have been better to get rid of all the bodies rather than leave them lying around so a mass grave seemed the best option for body disposal.

Off to the right of the clearing were Sarah Taylor and a bunch of soldiers, probably ones from her squad from what Roland could tell. Sarah had her customized rifle raised as she fired at a paper target stuck onto a tree trunk far up ahead, getting a bullseye or close to it practically every time she fired a round at it.

Roland's attention was diverted from Sarah Taylor's action by a familiar voice from in front of him. He turned his head to face his front and saw Lukas standing in front of him.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

Lukas paused for a moment, thinking of what he was supposed to be telling Roland.

"I've just received word from one of our engineers," Lukas said after a brief pause, "it seems that he'll be able to get the synthetic soldiers operational in about two hours."

Roland nodded, keeping his face neutral. However, deep down he was quite excited by the prospect. Humanity's first army of completely non-organic soldiers, programmed to obey orders down to the letter. They would be an invaluable asset to the operation if anymore complications such as SG-8's arrival occurred. They would also speed up the operation as well.

"Good,' Roland replied simply, "once they're active I want them patrolling the mountain. We can't afford to let anymore intruders interfere with our operation here."

Lukas nodded his head. He had always been the bearer of news for Roland, bringing usually good and occasionally bad news. He was Roland's aide after all; meaning that if Roland wanted a coffee Lukas would be the one to make it. Thinking of coffee…

"Lukas, could you be so kind as to pour me a cup of coffee?" Roland asked, "The machine's back in the tent."

Lukas nodded, obedient as always. He walked past Roland and into the tent, stepping over to the coffee machine in the corner and picking up the pot of still hot coffee. Roland waited outside, taking in the rainforest air and environment around him while he puffed away on his cigarette. He would make sure to get as much as he could out of the one cigarette before throwing it away, seeing as he hardly had any a day. He knew how to control himself, unlike some people.

Roland had never suffered any ill effects from his slight smoking habits. Nor had he ever caught any sort of illness, seeming immune to even the common cold. When he hurt himself, such as a scratch, he could expect that scratch to heal up within the day. These special attributes had been why he had become centre of attention for the SDIOA in the first place and was why he had decided to enact his own personal vengeance upon the secretive organization.

Lukas returned with a cup of coffee, handing it to Roland and stepping back outside. Roland, having burnt out all the tobacco in his current cigarette, removed it from his mouth and dropped it into the muddy ground at his feet. He stamped it into the ground, making sure there was no chance of it catching alight anytime soon. The last thing they needed here was a forest fire.

Roland took a sip from the coffee, finding it to be still quite warm thanks to the heated jug at the machine. It was also better than most other coffees Roland had had past days while here on Taleria, seeing as he had made this batch himself.

"Sir, the two men we sent to the southern-most outpost are now half an hour overdue," Lukas said, glancing at the digital watch he was wearing around his left wrist. Roland nodded, completely aware of this fact but not too concerned about it. The two men they had sent to recover the naquadah from an SDIOA outpost were probably stuffing around or simply lost, either one of those two possibilities seemed to be about right.

"They're probably just lost," Roland said, taking another sip of the coffee, "when they're an hour overdue we'll send someone out to find them. Besides, I doubt anything could have happened to them…"

"Uh, sir…" Lukas looked nervous all of a sudden, as if the next piece of news he had was the bad type. Lukas was used to Roland's reactions to bad news, especially when it directly affected their operations here. Lukas didn't like it when Roland went all angry since that would usually mean someone gets hurt.

"What is it?" Roland frowned, noticing his aide's obvious uncertainty, "is it something particularly bad?"

"Well, it could be," Lukas said.

"What do you mean, 'it could be'?" Roland didn't like it when someone was purposely vague like Lukas was being right now. If there was a problem then Lukas should just go out and say it rather than stall like this. Roland was sure they could find a resolution.

"You know those scanners we set up in the clearing with the stargate?" Lukas asked, knowing full well that Roland knew about these scanners. The scanners in question had been a precaution, set up shortly after their first encounter with SG-8. They were able to detect the energy spike that emanated from a stargate when it activated, taking record of what time this occurred and for how long the stargate was in use. These scanners were courtesy of the alien technology they had found on the headquarters world and implemented into standard Earth technology, resulting in a few scanners that could be easily hidden in long grass.

"They reported an activation earlier today," Lukas said, "however; we only received information about it five minutes ago."

Roland raised an eyebrow, instantly concerned. Another stargate activation could mean anything and his mind was going to one possibility that seemed the most likely…

"They're flawed, to say the least," Lukas said, "something went wrong with our connections to them. That's why our computers only detected it just now…"

"You can't expect much from hastily constructed prototypes, Lukas," Roland said, doing his best to prevent from jumping to conclusions. He needed to think clearly if they were to solve whatever problems this new development would cause.

"It happened just before midday," Lukas said, "and some of the guys think it might be another SG team…"  
Roland nodded. It was the most likely possibility, especially since SG-8 had arrived a few days ago and was probably way overdue for a return. Of course, sending another team through seemed a foolish enough move on the part of the people who ran the SGC but it also indicated that they weren't expecting much here on P5H-734. If they had only sent one team through that was good since Roland could send them back and hopefully by then they would be able to seal the stargate.

"No use speculating on who it was," Roland replied, finishing off the cup of coffee and clutching the empty mug in one gloved hand, "we simply have to be ready for anything. All the more reason to get on with moving the operation into the mountain facilities."

Lukas nodded, pleased that Roland hadn't reacted in a nasty way to the late arriving bad news. Instead, Roland headed back into the tent and placed the empty coffee mug by the coffee machine. He turned around and began to pick up the map and other items that were on the table, folding up the map as he went. It was time for him to pack things up and head into the mountain facilities and get one step closer to the ultimate goal of their operation. For within the mountain was something of vital importance to Roland's plan and something that they were close to getting hold of.

Outside the tent one of the soldiers retrieved a can of gasoline from the back of a parked armoured SUV, stepping over to the edge of the wide pit. He managed an impassive glance through his helmet's visor at the twenty or so corpses piled up inside the pit before proceeding to pour gasoline onto the bodies in the pit, emptying the can rather quickly.

Roland emerged from the tent shortly after; map folded and tucked under one arm. He ordered two passing technicians to start packing up the tent and the things inside it. He stopped by the side of the pit, looking at the corpse piled inside it with indifference.

A controlled fire in the pit wouldn't do much harm to the environment around them and Roland's orders had been to destroy all evidence of what had occurred here. This meant burning the bodies and burying the ashes, seeing as fire was the best at destroying evidence. All that would be left when Roland and his forces finally left the planet would be ashes. At least, this was what had been planned.

To begin this complete and utter cleansing of the SDIOA from this planet it was best to start off small. This meant getting rid of these bodies and all Roland had to do was think about it, concentrating on the contents of the pit for a moment. The gasoline that had been poured into the pit helped to accelerate the process.

Roland watched as the gasoline caught fire, the flames licking at the side of the pit as thick grey smoke started to waft its way skywards. He stared at the fire for a long time, watching as the bodies within the pit burned away and became nothing but charred skeletons. The smell of cooked flesh hung in the air long afterwards, yet Roland never lost his fascination with fire. Especially if said fire had been created by him.

* * *

"These guys are sick."

Colonel Jack O'Neill lowered the pair of military-grade binoculars from his eyes, trying to determine whether or not he had been seeing things. He was lying low amongst the undergrowth on the edge of a clearing which lay at the base of a fairly large mountain, perhaps the same size as Cheyenne Mountain although a little wider. In the clearing several of the armoured soldiers as well as what looked to be men in grey overalls and hard-hats, presumably engineers of some sort, went about packing up tents and moving crates past the security checkpoint ahead. They went past this and into an artificially made tunnel which had been dug into the side of the mountain, curving off into darkness beyond. It seemed like another Cheyenne Mountain, just lacking a proper road and the usual number of vehicles that travelled in and out of the complex.

What Jack had had his eyes on, however, had been the man who had stepped out of one of the few remaining tents, this particular tent now being packed up. For one thing the Colonel had assumed this man was the leader of the bunch by the way he was dressed and how he seemed to walk around looking important, telling some other younger looking guy what to do. At least this is what Jack had assumed from what he had been able to read from their lips.

Teal'c was crouched in the bushes just off to his left, watching the scene before them. He had his staff weapon by his side just in case, seeing as it was perhaps the most effective weapon the team had against this new enemy. Teal'c and the Colonel had spent the last hour or so following the muddy dirt road from the shot-up outpost, using the tire tracks left in the mud to guide them to where the two soldiers they had killed earlier had come from. It seemed safe enough to assume the two soldiers had come from here, seeing as there were many more of these armoured soldiers hanging around here as well as there being a few of the blue-grey SUVs parked off to the side of the clearing. It seemed to be their centre of operations although they were all heading inside the mountain now, as if a change of location was underway.

Too many questions gnawed away at Jack's mind about all of this, such as who these guys were and who the important looking guy in the black armour vest was. This guy had emerged from one of the last remaining tents, speaking briefly a younger man in the same armour as the other soldiers save for a helmet. Whatever was going on here was definitely important and so Jack had decided to hang around and spy on them for a while, hoping to determine just what was going on. This meant not getting found out; otherwise about twenty armoured soldiers would be after him and Teal'c.

Jack had watched the important looking man, zooming right in on the man's face. Perhaps he could run this guy's face through the computers at the SGC and find out who he was? Jack would make sure to keep what this man looked like well on his memory for future purposes.

He had watched as the man had spoken with the unhelmeted soldier, cigarette in his mouth before he threw it into the mud and got the soldier to get him a cup of coffee. It was this little occurrence that lead Jack to believe that he was looking at the leader of the force of soldiers seeing as this man had the power to order someone to get him a coffee.

Over to the left of the clearing a group of about five soldiers, all but one wearing helmets, were clustered around the unhelmeted one. Jack shifted his view onto this particular soldier, seeing that this soldier looked to be a young blonde-haired woman. It wasn't too much of a surprise and Jack spent a moment watching as the woman raised her rifle and fired at a tree about thirty metres ahead, hitting the bullseye of a paper target that had been stuck to its trunk.

Jack shifted his view back onto the main man now, watching as he approached the edge of a large pit that a few soldiers had been filling with bodies for the last five minutes. Jack and Teal'c had watched as these three soldiers carelessly threw in the bodies of what looked to be men and women dressed in blue uniforms, quickly following up with a body in a large bag and what looked to have been someone in an SG team uniform. Jack could only guess at what this meant, accounting for yet another dead member of the four person team. He was hoping they would at least find one member of SG-8 alive but this was getting less and less likely by the minute.

The one thing that had startled Jack had been when one of the soldiers had gone ahead and poured what looked to be gasoline into the pit, presumably in order to burn the bodies. This seemed a tad unnecessary but then again Jack wasn't in a position to judge, figuring that these people had their own special reason why they were resorting to burning and burying corpses.

However, what had startled Jack even more had been when the main man had approached the pit and simply stared down into it. At first this had seemed a little odd until the flames had appeared, the gasoline on the bodies igniting and sending a thick plume of smoke wafting up from the pit and into the air. The smell of cooked flesh soon reached both Jack and Teal'c nostrils and they both exchanged glances.

Jack hadn't seen any visible means that the men had used to start the fire but it was probably just something he had missed. Whatever had done it was gone now while the leader simply watched the flames with impassiveness, observing as the flames ate away at the bodies within the pit and slowly began to reduce them to ashes.

_Some sick bastard he must be,_ Jack thought, unable to help but recall some of the accounts he had read in history books. The Nazis had disposed of the bodies of dead Jews and other types of people they had considered "unsavoury" in much the same way during the Holocaust, digging a big hole and filling it with bodies before setting them alight. Could this be the same sort of thing, an evidence destroying operation? Whatever the reason Jack had the intention of finding out although he didn't like the idea of simple charging into this situation all guns blazing. There were too many of these soldiers but it may be worth the shot of capturing the important looking man.

"What do you think we should do, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, keeping his voice low, "there are many of them. I suggest that we head back to the stargate and regroup with the others."

Jack thought about this suggestion, having the feeling that it was probably their best course of action. He and Teal'c had stumbled right into the lion's den and since there were only two of them and lots of these armoured soldiers guys it would be best to get back to Earth and get reinforcements. The fate of SG-8 seemed obvious enough, seeing as they had confirmed two members of the team dead already. If Jack had seen correctly then another one had been thrown into that pit with the rest of the other bodies.

"Yeah, I think you're right about heading back," Jack replied, putting his binoculars back on the belt at his waist. He still carried the grey-black rifle he had picked up from one of the soldiers they had killed earlier, curious to see how it handled in action. Now was probably not the right time to test it out, seeing as he and Teal'c were clearly outnumbered.

"Who do you think they are, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, keeping his face straight and serious as it usually was.

"They're not good guys, that's for sure," Jack replied bluntly, Teal'c raising an inquisitive eyebrow in reply.

Jack was quite happy with the idea of heading back to the stargate and regrouping with the rest of the team. Daniel, Carter and Katelyn had all headed off to contact the local population, something that they were still in the process of doing. However, they had all agreed to meet back at the stargate within the next few hours and determine their next move. They were due back on Earth twenty-fours after their arrival here, leaving about eighteen to nineteen hours to go.

Jack wasn't looking forward to returning to General Hammond and telling him about the fate of SG-8 and the fact that they had a new and dangerous enemy that appeared to have access to the stargate network. The Goa'uld were bad enough while the NID had been fairly annoying. Now it seemed the good forces of Earth had to go up against a high-tech human army, something which was bound to get a reaction from Hammond and the other big wigs back on Earth.

"We'll head back," Jack finally said, "and once we've regrouped with the rest of the team we can figure something out. I have the feeling that important looking guy standing by the pit is fairly high up and would probably make a great source of information if we captured him. What I'm worried about is that if we head back now, by the time we get reinforcements and return he might be gone."

This was certainly a valid enough point but part of Jack knew it probably wouldn't be the case. It seemed safe enough to head back and get help for trying to capture the important looking guy or, at the very least, one of the soldiers.

"I see your point, O'Neill," Teal'c said, "however, maybe if we were to gather the rest of the team we would stand a better chance."

Jack nodded. It was worth a shot. Capture the important looking guy and get back to the stargate. First off, though, was getting the rest of SG-1 together.

Jack tried his radio. Unsurprisingly all he got in reply was the warped hiss of static. Whatever was causing the energy signatures that had been detected by SG-8 also interfered with a lot of electronic devices, including transistor radios. Jack wouldn't be surprised if the important looking guy's coffee machine was operating a bit out of whack.

That was when the sound of a man's voice called out from somewhere in the rainforest behind them. Jack froze, his heart thumping in his chest as he realized what this could mean. Slowly and carefully her turned around, rifle raised as he gazed into the undergrowth further back into the rainforest. Teal'c was now fully alert, having swivelled around where he had been crouched with his staff weapon raised and ready to fire.

The three soldiers that emerged from the rainforest were in fact completely oblivious to the presence of the two intruders, simply talking amongst themselves as they walked past. Jack was relieved since this would mean no firefight, thus making getting back to the stargate a lot easier.

Jack felt a sneeze coming on. Special thanks went to his cold, the virus that had, for the last few days, given him a running nose, coughing fits, sneezes and general annoyance. The cold environment here in this particular region of P5H-734 simply amplified the effects of the cold virus and so, at the most inopportune of times, it was going to make him sneeze.

Jack wasn't stupid. Far from it, in fact. He held it in as long as he could as he and Teal'c watched the three soldiers wander past by only about ten metres, keeping hidden from the enemy amongst the thick green undergrowth. The sneeze didn't quite come out as a sneeze, more of a muffled squeak as Jack's eyes snapped shut and then open. He received a curious glance from Teal'c but otherwise they remained unnoticed. The three soldiers kept walking past and kept speaking amongst themselves, rambling on about something to do with their favourite type of doughnut.

Jack, relieved that he had gotten through his sneeze without alerting the whole area to his and Teal'c's presence, kept his eyes on the three soldiers as they slowly trudged past. They seemed to be taking forever, as if to get on his nerves. This wasn't the case, of course, but to Jack it certainly seemed that way.

He sneezed again. This time it came out quick and fast, not to mention loud. Snot flew out of his noise as well as much spittle but this was of little consequence compared to what happened next. He may as well have blown a bugle since every bad guy in the area seemed to have heard it, turning their attention in the general direction of the Colonel and Teal'c.

The three soldiers that had been wandering past stopped and raised their advanced rifles. Jack raised his and Teal'c turned his staff weapon towards them, both men realizing that a whole lot of trouble was about to start.

Rather than let the soldiers fire first, Teal'c took the initiative and shot a blast from his staff weapon. It zipped through the undergrowth, searing a few leaves before slamming into the helmeted face of the soldier on the left, melding flesh with steel and blowing a nasty hole in the front of his skull. The soldier was knocked backwards and landed flat on his back, most definitely dead.

Jack opened fire with the advanced rifle, feeling it buckle back against his shoulder as he kept the trigger pulled. Sparks flew from the armour of one of the soldiers, this soldier twirling about slightly and falling as some of the bullets found their way through his armour. He was relieved to see that this weapon was at least able to pierce the armour these soldiers wore, unlike a standard MP5 which seemed to have trouble.

By the time the second soldier was down the last one had his rifle raised, about to fire. Teal'c didn't let him, firing a blast from his staff weapon which slammed into the chest of the soldier, sending forth a big puff of smoke. The soldier was knocked backwards, landing in the undergrowth with a dull _thud_. He didn't get back up again.

Now the other soldiers out in the clearing were running over to investigate. Jack saw them coming and decided that now was a good time to leave, standing up and starting back into the forest. Teal'c followed, occasionally glancing back at the several soldiers that had begun to pursue them.

Rifle fire zipped through the forest, blowing chunks out of trees close to the fleeing pair as the soldiers in pursuit began storming into the forest. Teal'c swivelled around and blasted one of the soldiers down with his staff weapon, shifting his aim to another and firing. This soldier was sent falling backwards into a tree, hitting it with what sounded like a fairly painful _smack_ and slumping down, a big scorching hole in his chest.

Jack noticed the smaller group of soldiers off to his left that were racing through the rainforest at a surprising speed, presumably in an effort to flank him and Teal'c. Teal'c saw them as well and raised his staff weapon as he was running along, firing at the soldiers and blasting one down.

"I think they're trying to flank us!" Jack exclaimed, sliding down a slight incline in the forest floor. He came to a halt in a small ditch just as this group of four soldiers came from the other way; the group lead by the female soldier he had spotted earlier.

Jack went to fire his rifle but the weapon was sent flying from his grip with a loud _twang!_ He looked up and saw the female soldier had simply shot it from his hands like some sort of Western movie cowboy. Jack looked up at her, realizing he was more or less at her mercy, taking note of the wild fury he could see in her bright blue eyes.

_This one's crazy_.

Teal'c came sliding down the incline at the last minute, his staff weapon flashing as he fired a blast from it. It slammed into the woman in the stomach area and sent her flying backwards before she landed amongst the fallen leaves and undergrowth behind her. The other three soldiers that had been with her came charging into view, their rifles firing away. Bullets kicked up the dirt around Jack and Teal'c, flitting fallen leaves and pinging off of rocks.

Jack dived behind a fallen log, almost landing on top of his dropped rifle. He was hoping it was still in working order but unfortunately the round that woman had used to send it flying from his grip had dented the weapon's barrel considerably, rendering it useless.

_There goes my souvenir,_ Jack thought, mostly sarcastically. He un-slung his MP5 from around his shoulder and raised his head above the log, taking aim and firing away at the three soldiers ahead. Sparks flew and one or two rounds manage to find their way through the soft spots in the armour the soldier's were wearing, one of them falling while another one took a bullet in his left leg. Teal'c was crouched behind a boulder nearby and simply took aim at the wounded soldier, blasting him down before shifting his sights onto the last one of the group. Teal'c blasted him with his staff weapon just as the rest of the soldiers came running from behind them.

Jack was already fed up with the chase, taking the time to run from cover as rifle fire followed him along. Teal'c did the same, the pair racing up the other side of the ditch as several of the armoured soldiers came from the forest behind them. He turned around as he ran and emptied the rest of his MP5 magazine at the soldiers, one of them falling as the other nine or ten of them returned fire.

Splinters of wood flew from tree trunks as rounds slammed into them whilst ferns and other undergrowth were ripped to shreds. Jack and Teal'c kept running, reaching the dirt road and running onto it. It was here that Teal'c found a small well-hidden hole amongst the rocks, big enough to fit both of them inside. As well as that it was full of bugs and mud but Jack crouched into it anyway, Teal'c following him in and making sure the ferns outside blocked the entrance.

The pair watched from the dank confines of this little cave as the soldiers came running out onto the muddy road, looking around for any sign of the pair. Jack and Teal'c's footprints went across the muddy road before stopping before the forest, enough to lead the soldiers to believe that they had both headed on into the forest. As a result all of the soldiers began to cross the road, completely oblivious to the fact that Jack and Teal'c were hidden just nearby.

When the soldiers had gone Jack was able to breathe a sigh of relief. He slowly emerged from the cave with Teal'c, both of them covered in mud and a few bugs. Jack brushed himself down as he stood out on the road, intent on getting away from this place.

"I say that now would be a good time to get back to the stargate," Jack said, Teal'c simply nodding in agreement.

Whatever was going on here was something that Jack could wait about finding out, especially since finding out seemed to involve getting chased through a rainforest by a bunch of heavily armed and armoured soldiers intent on killing him.

* * *

Sarah Taylor opened her eyes, feeling only a little dazed but otherwise alright. She was looking up at the rainforest canopy while lying sprawled in the undergrowth, her rifle still gripped in her right hand. She sat up slowly, feeling a slight burning stinging pain at her chest. Looking down she could see where the staff weapon's blast had hit her, the armour there absorbing most of the blast and leaving her with a few burns at her stomach. She could take a little pain and so sat up, taking the time to pull off the scorched armour plating at her stomach before removing her first aid kit from where it was clipped to her waist.

Her mind was retracing what had happened just now, beginning with the sounds of weapons fire that had drawn her and her squad out to investigate. Somewhat surprisingly they had found three soldiers dead and two men fleeing. Both of these men had been in SGC uniforms, implying that they were either part of SG-8 or from an entirely different team. Either way meant further complications and also meant that Sarah would have a chance to score some more kills.

One thing she couldn't quite work out was why one of the SG team members had been wielding a staff weapon, of all things. The armour that she and the other soldiers had had been built to deflect bullets more than anything else, explaining why she had been knocked clean off her feet by a staff weapon blast. Her vest had only just absorbed the energy blast, leaving her with a few slight burns and nothing else. She began to rub a burns ointment into them now before sticking a few bandages onto them, rolling back down her shirt and looking around when she was done. A few of the other soldiers were heading back now, having been unable to find the two intruders. Sarah was sure the two of them were hiding somewhere, it would have been near impossible for them to get away so easily.

However, before Sarah could get up and try and find whoever had shot her she felt a firm grip on her shoulder. She turned around and saw that it was Roland, his hands in their usual black leather gloves while his face beared his normal but slightly unnerving smile. He took his hand from her shoulder, seeing that he had gotten her attention.

"Who were they?" Roland asked simply, getting straight to the point. He was of course referring to the two intruders who just managed to shoot Sarah and get away, something that annoyed the young woman considerably.

"There were two of them," Sarah replied, "both in SG team uniforms. One of them had a staff weapon…"  
This comment seemed to strike a chord within Roland since he raised an eyebrow, curious to hear more.

"A staff weapon?"

"Yeah, and he blasted me with it…" Sarah gestured to scorch marks at the armour around her stomach, still annoyed that she had been shot. After all, she had left one of the intruders defenceless by shooting the gun out of his hands. Then that other one had blasted her and the pair had gone on to escape. She shook her head, annoyed at her own carelessness.

Roland didn't seem too concerned about this though. Instead, he appeared to be deep in thought, as if trying to figure something out that was a bit difficult.

"I want you and your squad to go to the stargate out in the clearing," Roland ordered. Sarah nodded, always willing to pursue the intruders. The stargate seemed the most obvious place to start. "Make sure they don't escape. And make sure, this time Sarah, that you don't kill them either."

Roland sounded serious about this. Sarah, who had never been one for following orders to the letter, simply nodded. How was she supposed to capture them alive? Why did Roland want them alive? It was probably something to do with his grand scheme, whatever that was. Even when he had briefed them all he had remained a bit vague as to what they were going to do here on this planet but Sarah knew better than to question her orders. Roland liked her, that much was there, otherwise he would have kicked her out of his army long ago for being such a troublemaker and insubordinate.

"At least, _try_ and get one of them alive," Roland said.

Sarah liked this idea. Kill the rest and capture one. She could do that without much trouble. She nodded again, smiling slightly.

"Don't worry, I'll get one of them for you boss," Sarah replied, picking up her dropped rifle and heading off to gather her squad. Roland was left where he was, secretly annoyed beyond belief that yet another complication was threatening to interfere with his plans. However, he knew getting angry wouldn't solve anything and had the feeling that one way or another his scheme would work out.


	13. History

**Chapter Eleven: History**

**Location: **P5H-734

The townspeople seemed cautious enough towards the three travelers from Earth. It was human nature to be unsure towards strangers, especially if those strangers came from another planet entirely.

For the last five minutes Daniel Jackson, Captain Samantha Carter and First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine had been waiting around on the front steps of the stone manor house, having been told that whoever ran this town was on his way out to greet them. He was certainly taking his time though which implied that these travelers from Earth weren't high on his list of priorities.

At the bottom of the steps stood two town guards, their flintlock rifles slung around their shoulders while the guards themselves tried to not look bored. Standing around all day, especially when it was cold like it was now, didn't seem like a very exciting job.

Daniel glanced at the digital watch he wore around his left wrist, taking note of how much time was left before they were due back. So far they had about seventeen hours until they were supposed to arrive back on Earth, leaving plenty of time to hang around and learn more about the native population here. The humans here had advanced more so than the Goa'uld would probably have wanted them to. Daniel was curious to find out why the Goa'uld had left these humans behind as well as the rich naquadah deposits that the natives seemed to be exploiting. Even now he could see that the manor house before them was laced with chunks of naquadah, mixed in with the ordinary stone in order to create a much sturdier structure.

Daniel was sort of hoping that the leader of the town would have the answers he and the rest of the team were seeking. They needed information on the whereabouts of any surviving SG-8 members seeing that two of them had already been confirmed dead. As well as this Daniel was curious to the history of the locals here, as he often was when he came across an entirely different culture on another planet. The leader of a town would most certainly have the history he was curious to hear about.

Katelyn was standing nearby, looking bored as she leaned against a pillar by the front door. She was also looking like she was annoyed, something which she had been since Colonel O'Neill had sent her to accompany Daniel and Carter to get in touch with the locals. There was no doubt in Daniel's mind that she had been more interested on the more obviously dangerous path, having wanted to head with O'Neill and Teal'c to wherever the soldiers had come from.

Carter was standing over to Daniel's right, waiting around as he was instead of moping like Katelyn was. It seemed that so far Katelyn had proven herself to be a bit of a sourpuss when she didn't get her own way, something which someone was bound to throw back in her face sooner or later. Daniel, though, didn't feel like annoying her.

"So, when's this old fart coming?" Katelyn asked, breaking the silence that had fallen across the three during the five minutes worth of waiting, "he's taking his time, that's for sure."

Daniel looked towards her, managing a shrug. Katelyn also seemed the impatient type, especially when it came down to primitive natives such as the ones here on P5H-734. Well, they weren't too primitive…perhaps only about five to six hundred years behind Earth.

"He is the leader of the town," Carter said, "he can probably take as long as he wants."

Katelyn frowned, still holding an obvious dislike for Captain Carter. Daniel couldn't quite work out why but perhaps Katelyn saw some sort of rivalry within the Captain, seeing as she was the only other woman in the squad.

"I'm sure he'll show up eventually," Daniel said, deciding to intervene between the two before Katelyn started another argument with the Captain. As fun as watching the pair argue might have been, he figured that they all had much greater concerns than petty bickering.

"Yeah, well…I'm hungry," Katelyn said bluntly, searching one of the pouches in her vest for something to eat. She removed an MRE and removed the wrapped from it, proceeding to eat it while the group waited for the town's leader to show up. The front doors were understandably locked so going inside on their own accord wasn't really an option. Instead, they had to wait for however long it took for the town's leader, Lord Cawama, to show up.

Daniel turned around, looking across the well-tended gardens of the estate and towards the old-fashioned buildings in the town. A church steeple towered over the tightly grouped houses although it lacked any sort of religious symbol. This implied that the people here didn't apply to any sort of normal Earth religion, probably having developed their own since the time the Goa'uld left.

The group didn't have to wait too much longer for Lord Cawama to show up. After a few minutes the front doors opened and two guards emerged, both dressed in red and grey uniforms signifying that they were personal guards of the town's leader. Behind them was the large, ornately decorated entrance hall with stairs leading up to the next floor at the other end of the room. An old man in gold-laced brown robes followed the guards out of the manor, stopping in the doorway and looking at each of the three newcomers evenly and with a serious frown on his face.

Daniel, Katelyn and Carter looked towards him, half-expecting the old man to tell the newcomers to go away. He certainly had that look on his face, as if he wasn't too pleased with their presence. Daniel decided to speak up first, noticing that neither Carter nor Katelyn really had anything to say. Daniel was the more culturally open, always trying to learn about the native populations they came across.

"You must be Lord Cawama," Daniel said, holding his hand out in order to engage in a friendly handshake with the old man. Cawama just looked at his open hand strangely and Daniel retracted it, still keeping a grin on his face.

"I'm Daniel Jackson," Daniel said, deciding to get through the niceties first. It was best these natives see them as no different to themselves since the trust was still a bit strained, especially on the part of the locals.

"This is Captain Carter," he said, gesturing towards Carter, "and this here is Lieutenant Raine." He gestured towards Katelyn. Cawama simply looked at him strangely, as if he found something wrong with Daniel.

"We would like to know anything you can tell us about some missing people who might have come here," Daniel said, unable to tell whether or not he was making progress with the old man. Cawama was yet to say a word, simply looking at the newcomers strangely.

"Hey, how about you actually say something?" Katelyn asked, stepping forwards and looking at the old man, "we came here to get help, not get stared at by the likes of you." She wasn't the patient type and seemed to enjoy acting this way towards the leader of the natives here. Daniel could tell this by the grin on her face.

"Silence, woman," Cawama said simply, his voice rough-edged and stern. Katelyn simply rolled her eyes, turning to Daniel and Carter.

"He speaks!" She exclaimed before laughing. Cawama ignored her, turning to Daniel with what looked to be a straight enough face.

"You must be the three warriors from the Tauri," Cawama said, "although I was not expecting there to be women among your ranks, Daniel Jackson. And such annoying women at that."

Daniel could see that this made some sense. All the town guards here were male so it was safe enough to assume that women hadn't quite received equality in this native population.

"Annoying?" Carter frowned, realizing Cawama was referring to both her and Katelyn. "Since when?"

Cawama completely ignored her, not even managing a glance over at the Captain. It seemed that the old man didn't think much of females; something that Daniel could see was bound to get on Carter's nerves.

"Yes, we're from the Tauri," Daniel said, "although we call it 'Earth' now."

"Earth?"

"Yes," Daniel replied.

"Are there Goa'uld there?" Cawama asked this question in a serious tone, implying that the whole notion of the Goa'uld was indeed a serious matter among the native population. Even if the Goa'uld had left there would still be the stories and legends that were passed on through the generations about the oppressive, technologically advanced humans and their armies of loyal Jaffa who had once ruled Earth and many other planets.

"Thankfully there isn't," Daniel replied, seeing the old man ease a little. There was a pause before Daniel continued, deciding to get down to the reason why they had come here to visit Cawama. There were still two SG-8 members to find and it was important they be found alive. As well as this there was a whole army of high-tech humans out in the wilderness, a matter that needed to be attended to in some fashion.

"We're going to need to speak to you about a number of things," Daniel said, "as well as that, I'm curious about your history."

Cawama nodded, turning around and heading into the manor. Daniel took this as a hint to follow them, gesturing towards Carter and Katelyn to follow.

Beyond the front entrance was a large entrance lobby, ornately decorated with chandeliers, wall paintings and shelves of old items. A set of stairs lead to a landing above while hallways went off from both side of the entrance lobby, heading to further rooms and halls. A few armed guards were wandering around, eyeing the three newcomers carefully as they followed Cawama up the stairs and to the second floor. Daniel took note of the swords and old guns hung up on the wall. The swords seemed to be made of some sort of steel-naquadah hybrid, increasing their overall durability three-fold. In all it seemed the locals here on P5H-734 exploited the planet's rich naquadah deposits as much as the Goa'uld would have used to.

Cawama lead them through a set of large and open double doors, taking them into a large dining hall where a long, perhaps twelve seats on each side, table was located. At the moment the room was devoid of lie saves for the young female maid dusting a shelf over in the corner that didn't even look up as the group walked in.

"Nice place," Katelyn said aloud, "certainly beats the crap cafeteria back at the SGC."

Cawama stopped by the head of the table, gesturing towards it in an obvious invitation for the others to sit down.

"Please, sit down and we can get to whatever you wish to speak about right away," Cawama said, "and we can also get to eating…"

"I'm not that hungry…" Daniel began but he was interrupted by the old man who apparently wanted to hear none of his complaints.

"You are my guests and I will treat you as such," Cawama countered, "so, please sit down. I will have my cooks prepare a small feast."

Cawama waited for the three of them to sit down at the table before turning around and leaving, presumably to head for the kitchen and tell the cooks to start preparing food.

Daniel hadn't been expecting getting made to sit and eat but it was obvious Cawama held him and the others in high regard. It was probably because they were from the Tauri, something that all the natives seemed to know much about which implied that it was important in their mythology.

Carter was looking as bemused as he was while Katelyn seemed to be relishing the chance to eat some proper food. She set her weapons and her bag down on the floor beside her, looking around the vast dining hall. Paintings of landscapes and one of Cawama himself were hung up on the walls as well as several old rifles and swords. Daniel noticed a particular item hanging inside a frame, protected by a glass cover. Standing up he walked over to it, seeing that it was some sort of old tapestry of some sort.

"He seems nice enough," Katelyn said, "especially since he's gone to prepare a feast for us. Certainly better than the MREs we packed."

"It always seem that whenever we encounter a nice native population they're always housing some sort of dark secret," Carter commented, remembering past experiences, "this Lord Cawama seems the secret keeping type. Don't you think so, Daniel?"

"Yeah, you could say that," He replied as he stepped towards the yellowed and old tapestry. He took note of the figures depicted on it, noticing the obvious pair of Jaffa with their staff weapons as well as the group of innocent civilians who seemed to be on their knees before them. Behind the Jaffa was a figure in dark robes, wearing what appeared to be some sort of helmet resembling a bull's head with horns, something that completely obscured the person's face. Even further behind them was a depiction of the stargate with its blue event horizon to add to the accuracy of the picture. In all, Daniel was certain it dated back from the time the Goa'uld were the rulers here. Or, at the very least, it was a depiction of the local people's legends and stories about the time of Goa'uld oppression from a later date.

The bull's head character was one he had seen before. Daniel began to search the wealth of knowledge on ancient Egypt he had in his mind, certain that he knew who the figure was but unable to conjure up an immediate answer.

"That is Khnum," a familiar voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw Cawama standing behind him, having walked in a few seconds ago. Daniel nodded, his knowledge of this particular figure from Egyptian mythology returning to him from the dark corner of the mind where it had been stored for several years.

"Khnum, God of the source of the Nile," Daniel said, "and a whole lot of other things as well, all depending on which part of Egypt you refer to. He was sort of forgotten about after a while, though. Almost unheard of in the later years of ancient Egypt…"

Cawama looked confused, unsure of what Daniel was talking about. Carter, on the other hand, simply had a smirk on her face.

"So, he's a Goa'uld?" She asked bluntly.

Daniel nodded in reply whilst recalling all that he knew of this particular Egyptian God. Khnum had been an early, not particularly powerful, Egyptian God whom had been apparently in charge of letting the waters of the Nile river flow. Over the hundreds of years of ancient Egyptian history that followed Khnum ended up being sent to a less important role before being completely forgotten about later on, as if he had simply…disappeared. This was probably something to do with other Goa'uld and their constant rivalries and conflicts. Perhaps Khnum had ended up losing to anther System Lord?

"This depicts the time of his departure," Cawama said in reference to the old tapestry, "according to the stories, he left through the Chaapa'ai about a thousand years ago along with his personal bodyguard. Our people were left to fend for themselves and Khnum never returned and still hasn't to this day."  
"He's not going to return anytime soon, is he?" Katelyn asked, raising an eyebrow, "because _that_ would be really inconvenient."

Cawama shrugged, approaching his seat at the head of the dining table and sitting down.

"I have made the necessary arrangements and a feast is being prepared," Cawama said, "please, make yourselves comfortable and we can discuss whatever you wish to."

Daniel left the tapestry behind and sat down in the vacant seat to Katelyn's right. Katelyn's remark about Khnum returning or not had left the thought that if this ever happened the people here would not be able to defend themselves. Their weapons would be practically useless against armies of Jaffa and if the locals proved too much of a hassle the Goa'uld ships could simply lay waste to their towns. That's why these locals could do with help from the Tauri, something that would make an excellent bargaining chip if needed.

"He might be dead," Daniel said, "he's been gone a thousand years so it's safe to assume he's either caught up in something really important or he's just…well, dead. The System Lords are always fighting amongst themselves anyway."

Katelyn nodded, seeming to agree. It was hard to tell since she still had the annoyed demeanour, as if coming here hadn't been what she had wanted to do.

Daniel turned to Cawama, deciding to get down to business. They needed to know about the force of high-tech soldiers out in the rainforest and they also needed to know about the surviving members of SG-8 who may or may not have come to this town. Daniel took a moment to decide on which one to start off on before speaking.

"Two others like us, also from the Tauri, may have come here. Do you have any sort of information which may help us in finding them?" Daniel asked.

Cawama thought about this for a moment while a maid with a tray of glasses and a jug of water walked in, placing it in the centre of the part of the table where the four were seated. Katelyn was the first to reach over and take a glass and the jug of water, pouring herself a glass and downing the contents happily.

"There were two like you," Cawama said, "they came here seeking assistance. However, the best I could do for them was hide them from the soldiers that wanted to find them."

"So, they came here?" Daniel asked, realizing that they were on the point of making progress, "then what? Where are they?"

Cawama shrugged.

"I did not wish for my town to bear the brunt of an attack by those metal soldiers. They had threatened me in the past, their leader to be precise. He is an odd man who is always wearing black gloves and has a liking for fire…"

Daniel realized that Cawama was rambling off-track a bit, a fact he wanted to change before they all got lost in these ramblings. It was obvious that Cawama was getting old and senile, a fact that wasn't hard to notice when the old man reached over for the jug and began pouring himself a drink. Instead, he ended up spilling half of what he poured when he missed the glass entirely because of his shaking hands.

"The two you ask about left a day later," Cawama said, "I was able to give them one of my guides to get them to the chaapa'ai but this was as far as my guide took them. What happened then I do not know, although I do know that there may have been some of the soldiers guarding the chaapa'ai…"  
Daniel realized that Cawama was in fact speaking of the two members of SG-8 who had made it two the stargate, only to both get gunned down. One of them had fallen through the wormhole and into the SGC whilst the other had been found dead near the stargate's DHD. Daniel sighed, realizing that these facts didn't satisfy any of their objectives. Carter exchanged glances with him, the two of them knowing that they may be here for some time longer. Katelyn didn't seem too concerned and was instead tapping her fingers on the varnished wood of the table, waiting for the food to come.

"What can you tell us about these 'metal soldiers'?" Daniel asked, deciding to move on in subjects. It was obvious that Cawama didn't know much about any surviving members of SG-8, having met the two that had been confirmed dead. It occurred to Daniel that the mission was beginning to go in vain seeing as half of their objective of rescuing SG-8 had been failed.

"They arrived in the rainforest about a week ago," Cawama said, taking the time to think about this, "Their leader and several of the metal soldiers came here on the day of their arrival. Their leader isn't in the shiny metal armour the soldiers were wearing, instead he wore gloves and an armour vest. He threatened an attack on my town if we interfered, hence the reason I did not wish to help those you seek in a large way. I do have to look after the people of this town and the last thing I need is an attack…"

Daniel nodded. Cawama had been looking out for the tens of thousands of people who inhabited this town and so understandably hadn't wanted to really interfere with SG-8 and the high-tech force of soldiers.

"We've found out what we needed to know," Carter said, sounding as downbeat as Daniel felt. They had come all this way to find out what they already knew: half of SG-8 was dead.

"We're not going to leave now, are we?" Katelyn sounded a little annoyed at the obvious way in which Carter was planning on leaving already, "the food hasn't even been brought out yet…"

Daniel still wanted to learn about the native people here and there was still at least fifteen to sixteen hours to do that and get back to the stargate. They could learn about an entirely different culture, one that reflected Europe during the Renaissance. There was plenty to learn about here, from art to everyday life.

"No, we're not going to leave," Daniel said, checking the watch around his left wrist, "instead, we're going to have this feast and then we're going to look around the town some more."  
Carter frowned while Cawama's eyes lit up.

"I would be honoured to show you around my town, Daniel Jackson," Cawama said.

"We don't have time for this," Carter said simply.

"Why not?" Katelyn countered, shooting the Captain an annoyed glance, "we have plenty of time, don't we Daniel?" She looked at the archaeologist, waiting for an agreement.

Daniel nodded although Carter still wasn't convinced. She actually managed to bring up a valid point next.

"What if we encounter more of those soldiers out in the rainforest?" She asked, "We'll be delayed even further. And then Hammond's going to send someone to rescue _us_. Besides, getting through that rainforest took long enough last time…"

"Captain, don't you understand?" Daniel could see that Carter meant well with what she was saying but he still didn't want to abandon the learning opportunity they had here now. "We can learn about the people here and gain a wealth of knowledge about the period in Earth's history this town here reflects. We're facing a mirror image of sixteenth to seventeenth century Europe!"

Carter frowned, only partially convinced.

"We can't be late back to the SGC," Carter said, "Hammond will change the iris codes. We'll have to wait for him to send another team through…"

"I'm willing to have to do that if it means we can stay here and learn about the people," Daniel replied. Carter didn't say anymore to the matter, instead she sat back in her chair and began to wait as everyone else was for the food to come. Daniel was satisfied that he had won the argument and so began thinking about what they could learn here, his archaeologist fact-finding frame of mind coming into dominance. Katelyn, meanwhile, simply waited for the food to come.

Unfortunately, the food never did end up coming. Nor did another maid. In fact, what did end up coming was something all three members of SG-1 would have preferred not to encounter.

As the group sat and waited patiently the sounds from outside became a bit clearer. Birds tweeted, thunder rumbled and people out in the street talked and shouted for whatever reason. However, these natural town sounds were suddenly overtaken by the roar of an engine and the slapping wet sound one would get if they skidded through thick mud and puddles. It was these noises that had everyone in the room getting up and heading over to the window.

Katelyn picked up the high-tech rifle she had recovered from a fallen soldier earlier and stepped over to the window with Daniel and Carter. Cawama only needed to glimpse at what was waiting outside before he headed out of the room.

"They must have followed you here," he said, looking at the pair of blue-grey SUVs parked just outside the grounds of the estate. He paused for a moment before saying, "I will go outside and tell them to leave. However, in that time I expect you three would be wise to leave out of the back entrance."

He turned around and left the room, heading downstairs and outside. Katelyn stood by the window, her rifle at the ready as she crouched and peered outside. Daniel realized that his plans for learning about these people would be jeopardized by a potential early departure from the town while Carter was already heading for the exit.

"Are we going?" She asked, stopping at the dining hall's doors. Katelyn shook her head, preferring to watch.

"Not yet," she said, "the old guy might be able to ward them off. You see, I don't want to miss out on that feast he promised us."

Outside, several soldiers in blue-grey armour suits had emerged from the pair of SUVs. They were lead by one who bore black shoulder patches, signifying that he was of a higher rank. He made his way past the guards at the gate, simply ignoring the flintlock rifles they pointed at him. The rest of the soldiers followed, the group of them stopping halfway down the front gardens when they saw Cawama stepping down the steps at the front entrance.

He greeted them with open arms, attempting to show that he was neutral in the conflict here on the planet. The lead guard, Daniel assumed he was an officer, approached the old man. It was impossible to make out any sort of expression through the helmet he was wearing, helping to give an imposing look.

Katelyn, Daniel and Carter watched from the window, the three of them making sure to stay just out of sight so the guards wouldn't notice them. Down below, Cawama began to speak, his voice showing no hint of fear and in fact was rather welcoming towards the soldiers, adding to his obvious neutrality.

"Why do you come here again?" He asked inquisitively, "you have already bothered my people and me enough…"

"Don't bother playing innocence with us, old man," the lead armoured soldier said, "we tracked three intruders to your town. Now where are they?"

Daniel exchanged glances with Carter, seeing that she was as concerned as he was about the situation. He figured they would be best to leave but there was still a chance that Cawama would be able to ward the soldiers away. It was obvious the old man was attempting to be neutral and not help either side but it was obvious these soldiers would have their fair share of persuasive means.

"Intruders? I know of no intruders…" Cawama was interrupted by the lead soldier before he could finish, the soldier raising his rifle. Immediately the town guards nearby raised their flintlock rifles while the other armoured soldiers trained their rifles on guards in return. Cawama tensed and so did Daniel and Carter while Katelyn simply took aim at the lead armoured soldier with her rifle.

"You're lying," the lead soldier said rather bluntly, "and I don't like liars."

Cawama barely batted an eyelid, instead he stood his ground. It was obvious that even in his old age he had considerable integrity, facing up to a much stronger foe. Daniel realized that Cawama was far from neutral, definitely on the side of SG-1 and SG-8 than with the force of high-tech soldiers.

"Just leave me and my people alone!" Cawama said sternly, "you are no longer welcome here!"

The soldier, still with his gun trained on the old man, didn't seem too bothered by this remark. Having an old and partially senile man tell him what to do was something he wasn't about to resign himself to. Instead, he pulled his rifles trigger and a burst of three rounds erupted from the barrel of the weapon, clouds of red blowing out of Cawama's front and back. The old man simply fell backwards, landing in a pool of his own blood behind him.

Katelyn fired and the lead guard, amidst a flurry of sparks, twirled and fell. The other estate guards went to open fire with their flintlock rifles but were cut down by the much more advanced armoured soldiers. Daniel and Carter went for their weapons while turning around to leave, Katelyn standing up and following them as the armoured soldiers began to flow through the estate's front entrance.

"I think that now is a good time to leave!" Katelyn shouted, able to hear shouts and weapons fire from the floor below as the soldiers charged their way inside and cut down the guards and maids. The trio sprinted out of the dining hall and turned onto the landing in the front lobby, finding that all seven armoured soldiers were making their way up the stairs. As soon as the soldiers saw them they opened fire, chunks of plaster and wood flying from the walls as bullets pounded into them. The three of them sprinted back around the corridor as the soldiers kept firing, blowing chunks out of the carpet in the floor and the walls ahead.

The soldiers followed them through the corridors of the estate, coming around the corner just as the trio came to the end of the hallway. Carter ran towards a door, trying it and finding that it was locked. Taking a step back she kicked it in with surprising force, breaking the door from its hinges and opening up onto a large balcony outside. Daniel and Carter ran out onto the balcony while Katelyn turned around and opened fire towards the armoured soldiers that came from around the corner back down the corridor, cutting two of them down while the floor and wall behind her were ripped to pieces. She backed away through the door and out onto the balcony and cold air outside.

"Now what do we do?" Daniel asked, looking around the balcony. Immediately he couldn't see any other way forwards and realized that they were most probably screwed. There were about five heavily armed and armoured bad guys racing down the corridor with the intention of killing the three of them. Something told him that this wasn't a very good thing.

Carter had already seen a way down, racing for a set of steps that went from the balcony and down into a large section of the estate's gardens. Hedges and white footpaths were below, as well as a circular water fountain which was set in the middle of it all. Daniel followed her down the stairs while Katelyn watched their backs, firing at a soldier who came running through the kicked down door and onto the balcony. He spun and fell amidst an array of sparks, his rifle clattering onto the stone of the balcony.

Katelyn turned around and followed Daniel and Carter down into the gardens just as the four remaining soldiers ran out onto the balcony, their rifles firing. Bullets ripped through the hedges and sent leaves flying but the trio of SG-1 members had made their way across the garden before the soldiers could get a proper bead on them. A closed metal gate was up ahead but Carter took the initiative and removed a grenade from her belt, pulling out the pin and throwing it towards the gate that was in their way.

The three of them dived onto the ground as the grenade landed just before the gate and detonated, sending the two halves of the metal gate flying off of their hinges and into the muddy street beyond. By now two of the soldiers were running down the steps to pursue them while the other two lay down a suppressing fire in the general direction of the three SG-1 members. Katelyn rolled onto her side and fired at the pair racing down the stairs, blowing chunks out of the wall near them and cutting both of them down.

Daniel stood up, his heartbeat racing wildly. He had never been shot at so much in the one day in his entire life. He was used to Jaffa shooting at him with staff weapons and so getting shot at with actual bullets that were near impossible to avoid came as quite a shock. He had his Beretta pistol out and took aim at the two soldiers on the balcony, firing a few rounds but watching with dismay as the weak 9mm rounds simply bounced off of the soldier's armour. Katelyn had one of the high-tech rifles, having acquired it from one of the soldiers that had been killed earlier in the day and with it seemed to have little trouble in penetrating the armour of the soldiers. Carter, meanwhile, had given up returning fire with her MP5 and had brought out her zat'ni'katel weapon.

The zat'ni'katel was small and lightweight, resembling a coiled cobra when in its stand-by mode. Carter activated the weapon and the weapon extended into a firing mode, allowing her to take aim at the soldiers on the balcony and fire. The weapon's shots were capable of stunning an enemy (at the first shot) before killing them (at the second shot). A third was capable of disintegrating an enemy, a move that was somewhat unnecessary in this situation.

Both soldiers fell, screaming as energy crackled across them from the zat'ni'katel shots that hit them. As if some greater power knew of the loss of the last few soldiers another SUV came skidding to a halt just beyond the gate, four more soldiers charging out of it.

Daniel, Carter and Katelyn stood up, firing their weapons at the four new arrivals. Daniel felt a bit silly, shooting away with his little pistol when Katelyn had that big high-tech rifle and Carter the zat'ni'katel but he kept shooting anyway. The four soldiers fell under the combined zat'ni'katel and rifle fire, allowing the trio to make their escape from the estate's ground and into the streets. By now all nearby civilians had wisely locked themselves indoors while town guards came running to investigate.

"We should head back to the stargate," Carter said, leading the group down the street just as another pair of armoured SUVs pulled up outside the estate. The soldiers that came out of them were caught up in a firefight with the town guards that had arrived seconds earlier, allowing the three SG-1 team members to escape the scene largely unnoticed.

Daniel's muscles ached and his lungs were almost burning, indicating that he was almost completely exhausted. He had never needed to do so much fighting and running in his life, let alone on a mission through the stargate.

The group turned into a dank alley between buildings, stopping to catch their breaths. Katelyn seemed the least tired of the three, keeping watch by the alley's entrance while Carter and Daniel decided on where to go next.

Daniel felt a little pang of regret for Cawama but knew that it wasn't really his fault. Well, not quite his fault at least: sure, maybe the soldiers had followed him, Carter and Katelyn into town but it hadn't been what had caused the soldiers to open fire in the first place. Besides, Daniel had the feeling that there were plenty more of these soldiers waiting for them outside the town. He didn't like the prospect of fighting through the rainforest.

"I think we're safe for now," Carter said, panting heavily and wiping her brow, "but we really have to get out of here. We can't be overdue for our return to Earth…"

"Yeah, otherwise Hammond will just send another team through," Katelyn replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "and they'll just get shot down by these armoured guys as well."

In all, it looked that SG-1 was in a rather nasty predicament.


	14. Back to the Stargate

**Chapter Twelve: Back to the Stargate**

**Location: **P5H-734

Today just kept getting better and better. Well, "better" was in the sarcastic sense. In fact, today hadn't been going on especially well at all. To begin with, SG-1 had arrived on P5H-734 and encountered a large force of high-tech soldiers who had apparently gone around and systematically killed other humans who had set up outposts on this world. As well as this it seemed that they were now intent on getting rid of SG-1 one way or another which would explain why Colonel Jack O'Neill and Teal'c had been racing through the rainforest while getting chased by a number of these soldiers.

Jack was close to exhaustion but kept moving anyway, only lagging a short distance behind Teal'c who seemed to show no hint of tiring. Jack liked to pride himself on his athleticism but even running through the rough terrain of a rainforest for a prolonged period of time could get tiring. At least it was warming him up seeing as it was awfully cold in these parts and had been ever since their arrival.

Ever since their encounter with the main soldier's camp the two of them had been hurrying back for the clearing where the stargate was located, making sure to keep ahead of the soldiers that were pursuing them. Jack was fairly unhappy at their current situation and was also annoyed at the fact that he was covered in mud, having slipped and tumbled in the slick muddy ground on more than one occasion. It was all over his uniform and some had managed to get on his face and hands, drying and clinging to his skin. It occurred to him that he could do with a good wash but unfortunately there were no facilities to do such a thing around here.

Jack just kept moving, pushing his way through ferns and other undergrowth as well as forcing his way through a few low branches of trees, snapping a few off on his way. Teal'c was just ahead, moving at fast pace and racing through the thick undergrowth as if it gave him barely any hindrance. Jack thought otherwise, getting tired of having to force his way through leaves and branches and occasionally getting scratches on his face and hands as a result.

Behind them and at a fairly safe distance for now were a group of the armoured soldiers who seemed to be having less luck getting through the thick undergrowth than Jack or Teal'c were. The soldiers in question probably weren't accustomed to it and so were taking their time when it came to forcing their way through the rainforest in pursuit of Jack and Teal'c, giving the two SG-1 members some reprieve in the chase. It wasn't much though but it did allow Jack to slow down a little, giving him a chance to catch his breath as he forced his way through the undergrowth at a brisk jog.

Something told him the soldiers in question knew exactly where they were going and so Jack wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of them were waiting at the stargate for them. It was obvious that whoever was in charge of these soldiers knew what they were doing and knew how to organize them into an effective fighting force, even giving them an advantage with the slightly more advanced weaponry.

Unfortunately Jack had lost the advanced rifle he had acquired thanks to some crack-shooting woman soldier he had encountered who had simply shot the weapon from his hands and damaged it in the process. It would have made a perfect souvenir and item to research back at the SGC but unfortunately he hadn't bothered to pick up the damaged rifle since he had been in a bit of a hurry. Now he just had what he had come with, save for a few MREs which he had consumed earlier on.

Teal'c was moving at his usual pace, using his staff weapon as an aid to bash his way through the undergrowth. He barely glanced behind, figuring that Jack was right there with him. He was, pretty much, just lagging a little when it came to the speed side of things.

The pair raced out into a small clearing within the rainforest which was littered with fallen leaves and branches. Ahead, two of the armoured soldiers came racing out of the undergrowth, weapons raised. By the time Jack and Teal'c were down in the clearing the soldiers were on them, charging towards them and ready to engage in a fistfight.

Teal'c went for one of them, using the butt-end of his staff weapon as a club as he engaged this soldier in melee combat. The other one came for Jack, the Colonel only just managing to catch his breath as the soldier went to slam the butt of his rifle into his face.

This was the last thing he and Teal'c needed. The time it took to bring these two guys down would let the other soldiers pursuing them catch up, something which would only bring on more fighting. Jack was too tired to really want to fight anymore but he had to in this particular situation, ducking as the soldier in front of him swung the butt of his rifle at him. The blow went above Jack's head as he ducked, the soldier unable to recover from the swing quickly enough to stop Jack from taking advantage. He lunged at the soldier from his crouched position, tackling him into the mud and landing on top of him.

Jack kept one arm across the soldier's shoulders as he used his free hand to remove the soldier's helmet, tossing it aside and revealing the young man's face beneath. These guys all seemed to be fairly young from what Jack could tell, as if they were recruits or something. He didn't care too much for them, instead seizing his chance to deliver a strong right hook into this man's face. The soldier's head lulled and blood poured from his nose, allowing Jack to stand up and gather his wits before he continued.

Teal'c was finished with the other soldier, using the butt-end of his staff weapon to deliver a cracking blow to the back of the other soldier's helmeted head. The force was enough to send him into the mud and Teal'c finished this by hitting him in the back of the head again. Just as he finished with this soldier a few more emerged from the bushes back from the way the pair had come, implying that their pursuers were catching up.

Jack realized that they were in some trouble now, turning around and raising his MP5 as he began to back away into the undergrowth behind him. Teal'c had raised his staff weapon and fired, blasting down one of the few soldiers that had emerged. Jack opened fire, keeping the trigger pulled as bullets bounced off of the armour the soldiers were wearing, sending sparks flying. The one he was aiming at fell under the intense fire but by this time Jack had emptied the whole magazine so he pulled it from the weapon, reaching for another at his belt. Unfortunately he had used up his quota of ammunition so, swearing loudly, he discarded the MP5 and removed his Beretta pistol.

The two soldiers left opened fire, bullets kicking up dirt near Jack and Teal'c as they began to back away into the rainforest. Teal'c fired his staff weapon again, the blast knocking back one of the soldiers. The other one went for cover, giving Jack and Teal'c the chance to make a run back into the forest.

By now Jack was getting fed up with all the shooting, figuring it was about time he took a break. His right hand still hurt from the punch he had delivered to the soldier only seconds before, his fingers throbbing dully. He was also rather annoyed at the fact he was stuck using the Beretta pistol, something that probably wouldn't have the power to stop a heavily armed and armoured soldier in their tracks.

Teal'c was pacing it through the forest with ease, probably used to this sort of place since his home-world of Chulak was much the same environment-wise. Jungles had never been Jack's thing, always full of bugs that bite and tree branches that scratched you as you pushed through them. There were also way too many places someone could hide in a rainforest like this, something that made him a bit uneasy about wandering through a place like this.

"How far, Teal'c?" Jack asked, having to shout as the pair ran through the undergrowth. Branches lashed at his face and wet fern leaves left large wet patches all over his uniform, only helping to make him feel cold. He sneezed rather loudly as he ran, ignoring the mucus that had begun to dribble out of his nose.

Teal'c didn't even glance behind him, keeping his concentration set on what was in front of him. He seemed to know where he was going; he would have to seeing as Jack had been following him the whole way. If they were lost Jack had the feeling he would get quite angry.

"We are almost there, O'Neill!" Teal'c shouted back, forcing his way past a number of large ferns.

_We better be_, Jack thought, wiping his nose with his sleeve which was perhaps unhygienic but right now wasn't exactly the time for cleanliness. Instead, he could swear he could hear shouting and footsteps a fair distance behind them and seeing that sound didn't travel too far in a rainforest like this it made sense that those shouts and footsteps were quite close.

Jack glanced behind him, back down the beaten path he had forced through the undergrowth. There was a flash of silver as one of the soldiers pushed his way through the undergrowth and so Jack raised his Beretta and started firing, the pistol recoiling slightly as he kept pulling the trigger. He couldn't tell whether he was hitting the guy or not since he couldn't really see him but he was hoping that the shots themselves were enough to slow down their pursuers.

Jack managed to empty the Beretta's whole magazine, something that only annoyed him further. He ejected the empty cartridge, letting it drop to the rainforest floor as he fumbled at his belt for another. It was hard to do that sort of thing when he was jogging through the rainforest so by the time he finally found his only other magazine he managed to drop it, stopping a few metres ahead when he realized it was no longer in his hand.

"Crap!" He shouted, about to turn back and get it. He quickly realized it probably wasn't worth it when the pair of armoured soldiers appeared from the undergrowth near it, their rifles firing. Jack turned around and started running, trying to ignore the bullets that were ripping into the undergrowth and trees around him. He simply kept his mind on running ahead, hoping to God that these guys had bad aim.

They did, it seemed. None of the rounds actually hit him and so Jack kept on running, remaining a few metres behind Teal'c as the two soldiers changed their magazines and started in pursuit. Jack realized he had no ammunition and so figured that maybe Teal'c did and that maybe he might be willing to spare some.

"Hey, uh, Teal'c?" Jack said as he kept on jogging, ignoring the aches in his legs. Sure, he was fit but it seemed to him that they had been running an awful long way. Even a fit man like him had his limits. Teal'c, on the other hand, seemed to show no sign of exhaustion.

"I need some ammunition!" Jack exclaimed, "I'm out!"

Teal'c abruptly stopped and turned around, leading Jack to stop as well. Behind them the two soldiers began to close in and Jack realized that maybe stopping wasn't such a good idea. However, Teal'c removed the zat'ni'katel he was wearing at his waist and threw it towards Jack who caught it with ease.

Jack switched the weapon into its firing mode and it partially extended, giving the impression of a coiled snake. He turned around and fired at the two soldiers racing up the path behind them, hitting each of them with the two shots necessary to kill a human. Both soldiers fell, blue bolts of energy crackling over them.

"Thanks, Teal'c," Jack said, turning around to face the big Jaffa. Teal'c simply nodded and turned around, continuing with his fast paced jog for the clearing. Jack followed, able to rest a little easier since it looked that they weren't being pursued anymore.

The pair continued through the forest for a few more minutes before they arrived on the short ridge overlooking the clearing where the stargate was located. Both of them went prone in the long grass, Jack removing a pair of binoculars from his waist and holding them up to his eyes. He peered towards the stargate and the abandoned camp site there set up by SG-8 when they had first arrived, taking note of a few new things that had appeared near the stargate.

"That's not good," Jack said simply, lowering the binoculars. Teal'c nodded, able to see the new items in the clearing quite easily without the need for binoculars. Jack could as well, counting the soldiers that were standing guard near the gate as well as the mounted guns they had set up.

There were about eight soldiers in total and two large mounted guns that looked powerful enough to rip someone to shreds. There was a soldier at each of the two mounted guns while the other six stood around the front of the stargate, obviously expecting someone to show up.

Jack realized that he should have known better than to think the way out would be left completely unguarded. He glanced over at Teal'c, able to tell that he was, as usual, completely unfazed by a development like this. Jack turned to look back at the clearing, trying to figure out a means of approach that wouldn't get them killed.

There was practically no cover out in the clearing save for the camp site that was right next to the stargate. Getting to the stargate would mean crossing a fair distance of open terrain, something which didn't seem like a very intelligent option. Jack realized that once again they were in a spot of trouble, one that would require some miracle if they were to escape without getting shot.

"It appears that the stargate is being guarded," Teal'c said, stating the obvious like he tended to do.

"Yeah, uh…nice observation, Teal'c," Jack replied, trying to figure out a way to approach this situation. Sure, with advanced Goa'uld weaponry they may be able to take on these guys without much trouble but there were two mounted guns that looked capable of spewing out bullets at an incredible rate. He and Teal'c wouldn't stand much of a chance if they just went running out.

"We'll head around the flanks somewhere," Jack said, sensing that this was perhaps the best course of action. These guys seemed to have covered only the front of the stargate, perhaps a result from sheer laziness or because they weren't really expecting anybody to arrive. They were probably thinking that the patrols in the forest would find and deal with the intruders accordingly. They almost had on more than one occasion.

Jack kept low as he started along the ridge, Teal'c following. They headed along the side of the clearing, staying amongst the long grass and going along the next side of the clearing. At the stargate the soldiers remained oblivious to the presence of the intruders, simply standing guard while two of them were speaking to one another about nothing in particular.

Once the pair had made their way in a position that looked onto the stargate from the side and left both men at the mounted guns exposed did Jack contemplate and heading down into the clearing. He checked his wrist watch, noticing that they had about eleven to twelve hours before they were due to return. He figured there wasn't much use in hanging around anymore seeing as they had quite obviously outstayed their welcome.

"Alright, let's work this out," Jack said, crouching low in the grass at the edge of the clearing. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, curious as to how Jack would plan their attack. "I'll take the guys on the guns while you head around the other side and take out the other guys. How's that sound?"

Jack realized how vague this little plan sounded but saw Teal'c nod anyway. Chances were that if they didn't strike soon more of those soldiers would be coming out of the rainforest after them, something that would only complicate matters further.

Jack took a deep breath, holding up a hand in a fashion that told Teal'c to wait.

"Okay, on the count of three…" Jack said, able to feel his heart racing once again. He was tired and needed a wash as well as a rest, two things that he could only really get back at the SGC. That meant getting past these guys without getting killed, something that may prove to be a bit tricky.

"One…" Jack started counting, deciding to take as long as he needed to. No use charging in with all guns blazing, rather it was better if they took their time. Besides, Jack wasn't all that keen on attacking these guys anyway. It seemed a bit too dangerous for his liking; then again he had been in far more dangerous situations before.

When they did get back to the SGC Jack simply couldn't wait to see General Hammond's reaction when he told him all about what had happened. No doubt there would be some sort of return mission although Jack wasn't keen on that idea, especially since these armoured soldiers were definitely dangerous types. Whatever was going on here still remained a bit of a mystery, one that Jack wasn't exactly keen on solving since it would mean coming back and having to go up against more of these soldier types.

"Two…" Jack readied his zat'ni'katel whilst Teal'c raised his staff weapon, ready to fire it at any moment. It would just be the two of them up against eight heavily armed and armoured soldiers, definitely not the sort of odds that Jack liked. They had been in trickier situations but those had usually been against Jaffa, most of whom had trouble shooting their staff weapons in a straight line.

That was when the sound of rifle fire echoed from across the clearing, sparks flying from one of the guards as bullets pinged off of his armour. He spun slightly where he stood before falling, lying at the base of the stargate with a pool of blood slowly forming around his head. Jack realized that perhaps the odds weren't so tough now, taking aim at the nearest soldier and hitting him with two zat'ni'katel shots. He fell with blue energy crackling over him, very probably dead.

"Three!" Jack exclaimed and he and Teal'c stood up, weapons raised as they opened fire on the soldiers ahead. Teal'c went running around the back of the stargate, diving for cover behind it and firing a staff weapon blast at one of the soldiers through the empty space in the middle of the stargate. That soldier was knocked backwards and down the steps at the base of the stargate, landing on the ground with a large scorching hole in his chest.

Across the clearing he could make out Katelyn lying prone amongst the grass, the rifle she acquired from a dead soldier earlier that day booming and sending a white-yellow muzzle flash through the grass near her. A soldier manning a mounted gun began to turn the weapon in Jack's direction but was peppered with rounds from Katelyn's rifle, spinning slightly and slumping onto the mounted gun, remaining motionless from then on.

Two of the soldiers turned their attention to Jack who had been running for cover amongst the abandoned SG-8 camp, opening fire in his general direction. Jack dived behind a stack of crates outside the tent and brought up his zat'ni'katel, blasting each with the necessary amount of shots to kill both.

Daniel and Carter came into view at the other side of the clearing, advancing under the covering fire that Katelyn was supplying. Both of them had their weapons raised and began firing, spraying bullets onto the soldier at the other mounted gun, sparks flying off of his armour while some found their way through. He stumbled backwards, slumping onto the ground behind the gun, one hand gripping the weapon's trigger and briefly firing it off into the air. The gun boomed but the rounds went off in a harmless direction, the gun only falling silent when the dead soldier's grip loosened.

The few soldiers left went running for cover but Jack and Teal'c dealt with them easily, leaving the area around the stargate free of any threats. Daniel and Carter stopped nearby, Daniel racing for the DHD while Carter kept watch on his back.

"Glad you could join us!" Jack exclaimed, "I thought Teal'c and I would have needed to start the party without you three…"

Katelyn came running into the clearing a few seconds later and with good reason. From the rainforest behind her emerged a whole group of soldiers, these ones going prone at the edge of the clearing and opening fire. Bullets kicked up dirt near Jack's feet, inclining him to take cover near the steps at the base of the stargate. Katelyn turned around and returned fire, taking down one of the soldiers which seemed to put the others off for a brief moment. Daniel began dialling on the DHD for Earth while the firing continued, trying his best to ignore the bullets the pinged off of the DHD itself and kicked up the dirt around him.

Back down the clearing from the way Jack and Teal'c had come was where another group of soldiers arrived; these ones lead by that woman who had almost shot Jack earlier. Seeing her, Jack decided to return the favour and took aim with his zat'ni'katel, firing a few shots. The distance was too great for the weapon to stay accurate, the shots zinging off to the sides while one managed to hit one of the other soldiers, sending him crumpling into a writhing heap on the ground.

Daniel seemed to be taking an awfully long time to dial in Earth's coordinates. Jack looked at him and then the stargate, noticing that six out of the seven chevrons were locked.

"What's taking you so long, Daniel?" Jack asked, unable to help but feel a bit annoyed at the delay. Here they were, getting shot at by a bunch of disgruntled armoured soldiers and Daniel was taking his merry time with the DHD.

Daniel looked up, his concentration broken.

"What's the point of origin?" He asked, sounding a bit frantic. Bullets pinged off of the side of the DHD and he instinctively ducked, looking towards Jack with some annoyance. "There's no unique chevron…"

"That's a bad thing, right?" Katelyn asked from where she was crouched, trying her best to return fire on the squads of advancing soldiers.

Jack racked his memory for P5H-734's point of origin, unable to quite remember it. If it wasn't unique then that would mean…

Now things were beginning to make sense. No unique chevron meant that this stargate wasn't the planet's original gate, which in turn meant that there was another one. That's when the correct symbol flashed into Jack's mind, having been stuck in a dark corner of his mind for some time.

"Try thirteen!"

"What?"

"Symbol thirteen!" Jack exclaimed, able to see that the two squads were beginning to advance. Katelyn and Teal'c had been firing away at the squads but weren't really hitting anything, preferring to suppress the squads of soldiers. It wasn't working and they kept advancing, including that woman whom Jack had already developed a grudge against. Carter had her GDO out and was preparing to input the code needed to open the iris back at the SGC but the stargate here wasn't yet activated. Daniel heard Jack's suggestion to use the thirteenth chevron and so pressed the pad where the symbol for the constellation known as Aquila was. The final chevron locked and the stargate activated, sending forth the splash before stabilizing into the water-like event horizon. As soon as it was activated Carter began inputting the GDO code while Teal'c and Katelyn started making their way up the steps.

Jack figured now was the best time to leave and so stood up, firing a few shots from his zat'ni'katel at the oncoming soldiers. He managed to take down a few of them but didn't think of staying any longer to fight, starting up the steps just as Teal'c stepped through the event horizon. Katelyn remained standing in front of it, rifle raised as she kept firing at the oncoming soldiers. Carter went racing up the steps, sprinting through the event horizon just as several rounds from the oncoming soldiers hit it as well. Daniel started running but the near unthinkable happened, a round tearing through his left leg which in turn sent him sprawling into the mud.

"Daniel!" Jack shouted but he felt Katelyn grip him at the shoulder, hurling him through the event horizon. By now the soldiers were racing at them, weapons firing which in turn sent several rounds into the event horizon. Katelyn fired a few more shots when her rifle's magazine clicked on empty. She managed a glance at Daniel just as some blonde-haired female soldier stopped behind him, kicking him in the ribs. As much as Katelyn hated to admit it, there was definitely no hope for Daniel at this time. Without further delay she dived through the event horizon just as the soldier's opened fire in her direction, sending several more rounds into the event horizon.

* * *

Daniel Jackson wasn't having a good day. For one thing he had been chased and sot at by hordes of disgruntled armoured and heavily armed soldiers and for another he had just been shot in the leg, although he was certain it was nothing serious. Even when the situation was as dire as this he was still thinking about the one thing that had almost got them stuck here for another few minutes.

_Aquila, I should have known!_ The point of origin for P5H-734 wasn't unique, which didn't seem to make a lot of sense at first. It only struck him as he was surrounded by the soldiers, barely noticing Katelyn push Jack into the wormhole. Besides, Daniel had just been about to tell them to go on without him: something told him they didn't want him dead. This was further proven by the fact that even when the soldiers surrounded him they didn't simply finish him off, the only thing one of them did was kick him in the ribs. Even when he was back down in the mud again he was still thinking about this latest discovery, the one that changed everything.

_P5H-734 has more than one stargate. That's the only possibility. _Another planet with two stargates? That would mean that P5H-734 had been fairly important to whoever had left the stargates lying around the galaxy. Or maybe there was a little more to it than that, such as in the case of Earth: one stargate had been brought to Egypt by Ra about five thousand years ago while the other had been left buried in Antarctica for God only knew how long.

The stargate ahead of him deactivated, the event horizon dissipating and leaving empty space within the ring. Behind him he became aware of a voice, one that was tinged with a deep sinister tone that made him uneasy. He sat up, managing a glimpse at his leg which was bloodied but in actual fact didn't look too serious. The bullet, as far as he could tell, had merely scraped him. Even so, it still hurt like hell.

"Good work Sarah," the voice said as Daniel turned around, looking towards the man in the dark military style outfit. The man was tall and imposing, wearing dark leather gloves to match his clothing. However, he was not wearing a gun or any other sort of weapon, something that seemed a bit odd since everybody else was carrying a gun of some sort.

Daniel, now stuck with potentially hostile forces, raised his hands and dropped the Beretta he had been clutching in his right hand.

"Ah…I'm unarmed," he said, not at all certain about this new predicament he found himself in. The man with the gloves simply looked down at him curiously, as if Daniel was some sort of micro-organism that this man was peering at through a microscope. He then looked towards the female soldier who had kicked Daniel in the ribs, smiling only slightly.

"My name is Roland," the man said, peering towards Daniel, "Roland Halverson."

He held out a hand, as if he was offering Daniel a hand in getting up. In fact, that was what this man was doing and with some uncertainty Daniel took it, wincing as he was lifted up by the man's surprising strength and in turn put weight on his wounded leg. Once Daniel was up the strange man's gaze shifted to a particular item attached to his belt, reaching over and snatching it.

"Hey, uh…you can't take that…" Daniel said but was immediately grabbed on the sides by two large soldiers which effectively switched him off.

Roland regarded the GDO he had taken from Daniel with some curiosity, pressing a few buttons and hearing a few beeps from it. The sounds seemed to excite him slightly and he looked towards Daniel, a smirk forming on his face.

"By the end of this hour you will have told me the code I need to unlock the SGC's iris," The man in the gloves said rather menacingly. Daniel didn't like the sound of this potential threat but didn't say anything, preferring to keep quiet just in case anything he said angered this man.

"Lukas," Roland said, looking around for someone in particular. A soldier who looked to be in his thirties and wasn't wearing a helmet stepped over from somewhere off to the left, obviously being this "Lukas" that had been mentioned.

"Yes, boss?" Lukas asked, immediately making it certain in Daniel's mind just who was in charge here. Roland Halverson was behind whatever was going on here on P5H-734, further adding to the complexity of the mystery behind this force of soldiers. Daniel had personally never heard of Roland Halverson but he was certain that someone back on Earth would have.

"Are those synthetic soldiers ready?" Roland asked, pocketing the GDO. Daniel was put off by this question, unable to quite believe what he was hearing. Synthetic soldiers? What the hell were they?

He looked around, seeing that the soldiers had scattered and began to remove the bodies of their fallen comrades. The female soldier, Sarah as Roland had called her, was standing by the DHD and looking at it with some scrutiny. Daniel assumed that she was all for chasing the others through the stargate which may explain why Roland wanted the code to open the iris.

"Some are, sir…"

"Have them combat ready within the hour," Roland said, "I feel like giving them a field test."

Lukas nodded before departing again, leaving Roland alone with Daniel and the two soldiers that were holding the archaeologist at the sides. Roland looked once more at Daniel, briefly contemplating on what to do with him. Daniel had the feeling it went along the lines of some sort of interrogation.

He was beginning to realize just how big an operation was going on here. There seemed to be plenty of soldiers all over the area and they seemed to have complete knowledge of the stargates. There was definitely more going on here than what could be immediately discovered. Perhaps, if he got on Roland's good side, he might be able to get the man to tell him a few things.

The thought occurred to him that Jack would be already pressing the General back at the SGC for a return mission, one to primarily rescue Daniel. The thought seemed rather flattering at first that Jack would go out of his way to rescue him but the archaeologist soon realized that it was just part of Jack's belief in "nobody gets left behind." No doubt he was having a go at Katelyn for pushing him into the wormhole. However, Daniel knew that if they had stayed behind any longer they probably would have gotten shot.

"Load Dr. Jackson into a SUV and take him back to the main complex," Roland ordered the two soldiers holding Daniel. They both nodded, forcing Daniel forwards as they began to escort him towards a SUV parked at the end of the clearing. However, Daniel managed one last look at Roland before the soldiers forced him to stay looking ahead.

"How do you know my name?" Daniel asked, realizing that this implied that Roland knew of SG-1.

Roland turned to look at him, simply smiling an unnerving smile that made Daniel feel uneasy.

"I know much about you, Dr. Jackson," Roland replied. He saw Daniel's surprised glance and simply shrugged.

"We can talk more later on, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, "for now, though, you'll be under close guard." With this he added a simple, "goodbye" and turned around, leaving Daniel with the two soldiers.

Daniel had the feeling that this upcoming conversation with Roland Halverson was going to be quite enlightening towards whatever operation this man had going here on this faraway world. Something told Daniel that Jack would be back with the others soon enough though, something that may jeopardize his chances of finding out about what was going on.

Regardless, Daniel let the soldiers push him along and load him into the back of the SUV. He took the chance to get some well earned rest, thankful that he didn't have to run through miles of forest like he had been for the last few hours.


	15. Secretive Affairs

**Part Two: Secretive Affairs**

**Chapter Thirteen: Return**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Earth

There was that brief but rather cold sensation one had when travelling through the stargate, lights whizzing by at an incredible rate. Almost instantaneously the team fell out of the other side, Carter and Teal'c racing out of the wormhole first before being followed a few seconds later by Jack and Katelyn.

Jack stumbled and fell onto the metal entrance ramp, having been pushed through the stargate by Katelyn only seconds earlier. It only took him a moment to realize that several bullets were about to follow them through the stargate so he went prone, looking towards the few soldiers standing up ahead in the gate room. Above Hammond and the technicians watched on from the window at the control room, wondering just why the team had arrived back twelve hours early and why they seemed so frantic and were covered in mud.

"Get down!" Jack shouted, only an instant before several bullets zoomed out of the event horizon and slammed into the wall ahead, blowing chunks from it. One of the soldiers was hit in the arm and fell backwards, shouting and bleeding. When the danger had passed Jack stood up, looking around the gate room and trying to gather his bearings.

They had been attacked, flanked from two sides as they tried to dial home at the stargate on P5H-734. No surprises that at least one of them had gotten hurt, Daniel having been hit in the leg. Jack remembered that Katelyn had pushed him into the wormhole and so looked towards the young Lieutenant, unable to quite control his sheer anger. He was still hoping that Daniel would come on through but it was another few seconds before the wormhole closed, leaving nothing but empty space in the centre of the stargate.

_No one gets left behind._

"Damn it Kate, why the hell did you do that for?" Jack shouted angrily just as Hammond and a medical team came walking into the gate room, "I could have gone back and got him…"

"And get killed?" Katelyn raised an eyebrow, as if she didn't care much for Daniel being stuck back on the planet and at the mercy of the enemy, "face it Colonel, I just saved your ass."

Jack didn't like the way she said this but then realized that it was closer to the truth than he would have liked. Something told him that if he had gone back to fetch Daniel chances are he would either be dead or wounded, two things he didn't really like being. Yes, he had "died" in the past, such as on the Nox home-world. To say the least, he hated dying.

"Oh, so I bet he's better off in the hands of a bunch of maniacs with guns?" Jack asked. It was a rhetorical question, one he wasn't expecting an answer to. However, Katelyn replied anyway.

"It's better than being dead," she replied, "They're probably keeping him alive. I'm guessing that they only wanted one of us, which would explain why they were so intent on killing the rest of us."

Jack didn't have the patience to listen to this anymore. He turned away from Katelyn, preferring to leave her opinions alone and see what the others thought. Carter was looking suitably grim and turned to him, probably as angered as he was at the recent development.

"We'll go back for him," she said simply, stating exactly what Jack intended to do. Teal'c nodded in agreement at this but otherwise didn't say anything, figuring that he didn't need to. It was obvious what he wanted to do, seeing as Daniel was as good a friend to him as he was to Carter and Jack.

Katelyn, on the other hand, didn't seem too bothered by the fact. Her sheer indifference was already getting on Jack's nerves but he decided against having another go at her, watching as she approached Hammond and saluted. She was obviously the more hardened type, the type that didn't care about anyone they left behind and was only focused on the mission. It was the type of military person that Jack despised the most but there was something about her that he couldn't bring himself to dislike completely. Perhaps it was because she was a woman and Jack wasn't the type who yelled angrily at women, unless they yelled angrily at him first.

"Sir, we've encountered a bit of a problem," Katelyn said to a concerned looking General Hammond, "in fact, several problems. One is that we lost Daniel."  
"He's dead?" Hammond was immediately grim, his ageing features creased into a frown. Katelyn shook her head, correcting herself.

"Last time I saw him he was alive," she replied, "he's just been left to the mercy of the enemy…"  
Hammond raised an eyebrow. Obviously he hadn't been expecting there to be much of an "enemy" on this mission so this statement came as definite news to him.

"Enemy? What enemy?" Hammond asked, looking at each of the team members in turn. All four were dirty and all four looked tired, as if they had been running an awful lot lately. They also smelt of dirt, something that implied that they had been crawling around in it a fair bit as well.

"None of us are really sure about that," Katelyn said, "in fact…"  
"In fact I think we should just head back and find Daniel," Jack said, stepping forwards. He had had enough of hearing Katelyn deliver the news to the General, knowing that she lacked the emotion in her words that would have given the news she delivered more effect. She was too much of a straight military woman who had just happened to be put on the team the day of one of the worst missions Jack had been on. Not only had they found SG-8 dead but they had gotten shot at and lost a valued team member. He doubted things could get any worse but he decided not to say this, realizing that they probably would get worse if he spoke too soon.

"He's still alive," Jack said, pointing an accusing finger at the stargate, "we can head back there and get him…"

Hammond shook his head, a serious look on his face as per usual. He wasn't the type who smiled about much but then again this was a fairly serious situation, one that nobody was smiling about.

"As much as I want to see Daniel alive and well, I don't think you four are in any state to hold your own rescue mission," Hammond said, much to Jack's disdain.

How hard could it be? They handled themselves well enough back there so a return mission shouldn't be much of a problem. Sure, those armoured soldiers probably had the stargate guarded in preparation for a return but Jack was sure they could handle them. A few stun grenades should distract them long enough to head through the wormhole and come out onto P5H-734 firing away. All they needed was some heavy duty firepower to penetrate the armour those guys wore, seeing as MP5 submachine guns loaded with standard full-metal jacket rounds had considerable trouble getting through the armour those soldiers wore. Jack was thinking that maybe they should bring an M60 or something along those lines, as long as it was a weapon that was bound to tear those soldiers right up.

"So, we're just going to leave him there?" Jack asked, although he could tell that Hammond was cemented in what he had decided to do. No return mission right now, not until they've all had a good talk. Jack wasn't looking forward to that since every minute they wasted here was another minute Daniel spent at the mercy of the enemy.

"Only for now," Hammond said, trying to sound reassuring, "before anybody attempts any sort of rescue mission I want you all to get cleaned up and meet me in the briefing room in half an hour. I have a feeling that it will be an interesting debriefing…"

"Come one, sir, Daniel's back there and if he's alive we can find him!" Jack exclaimed, exasperated and annoyed at the lack of progress that was being made on his part, "just give us some bigger guns, that's all. Those guys back there aren't all that good, they just have the better armour and weaponry…"  
"Colonel, you'll be able to go and get Daniel in due time," Hammond said, "before that, I wish to know exactly what happened back there. That means you'll go and have a shower, since you're covered in mud. Then you and the rest of your team will meet me in the briefing room and we can plan our next moves accordingly. No use running back through the stargate into an ambush, which is probably what this 'enemy' has set up for you back there."

Hammond took a deep breath, satisfied that he had made his point. Jack was quiet, realizing that maybe the old General did have a good argument. Something told the Colonel that those soldiers back there were expecting a rescue mission and would no doubt be ready for them, probably having already turned their mounted guns towards the stargate. Even so, he was fairly certain he and the team could handle it.

Hammond regarded each of them with a frown, still trying to determine what could have happened to them on the distant planet of P5H-734.

"All we need are some reinforcements," Jack said half-heartedly, "we can take care of these guys if we have some help. That's all I'm asking…"

"Again, Colonel, I can't simply send some of my best troops on a potential suicide mission until we have a good idea of what happened," the General said, shaking his head, "so quit asking me before I get annoyed."

Hammond, satisfied that his point had been made, turned around and walked out of the gate room. The team was left standing on the ramp, dirtied and exhausted. Teal'c didn't seem as tired as everybody else, instead he gathered up his things and walked away, satisfied that all they could have said had been said. No use standing around like a bunch of stunned mullets.

Katelyn walked off as well, leaving Jack and Carter in the gate room. Over by the wall ahead a medical team was patching up the wounded soldier who had received a stray bullet in the arm. It didn't look like a serious wound which was if some relief to Jack since if anyone here had gotten hurt he would have felt guilty about it.

"I'm sure Hammond will send us back," Carter said suddenly, getting Jack's attention, "he knows how important Daniel is to the team. He knows how important he is to _us_."

Jack nodded, although he wasn't in much of a mood to talk at the moment. If Katelyn had let him go back for Daniel then maybe they wouldn't be talking about rescuing him. Something told Jack that there had been a slight chance of getting Daniel without getting killed and a slight chance was all he had ever needed, until Katelyn had forcefully pushed him into the wormhole.

Jack headed off, walking out of the gate room and into the corridors of the base. Carter followed close behind, looking to be in just as much a solemn mood as Jack was. Sure, she was trying to be optimistic but Jack had the feeling that a rescue mission wasn't going to happen for a while. There was simply too much to tell Hammond about what they encountered on that planet and chances are a rescue mission wouldn't happen unless they got a considerable amount of help.

Regardless, Jack was going to press the point to the General as much as possible. If there was one thing the Colonel could do, it was arguing about something and usually winning the argument.

* * *

Twenty minutes later and Jack was cleaned up, having had a quick shower before getting into a clean uniform. He hadn't been the only one either but he had been the last one, having taken his time to do these things as well as stop off at the cafeteria and get something to eat. Running around and getting shot at could certainly make someone hungry and so Jack had gotten himself some of the leftover cakes from earlier today, taking his time to eat them before heading up to the briefing room.

It seemed that most of his time in the base was spent in the briefing room, preparing for an upcoming mission or talking about a previous one. The atmosphere of the briefing room had always been one of military business and had usually been a serious atmosphere at that. When he walked in it seemed a bit more solemn as usual, with Teal'c and Carter seated in their usual spots. Katelyn was seated in his usual spot, something that further annoyed the Colonel but he didn't say anything about it, preferring to keep things in the briefing room as civil as possible.

"Alright, everybody's here," Hammond said from his seat at the head of the table when Jack walked in, "that means we can get this debriefing started. Take a seat, Colonel."

Jack nodded, sitting down beside Katelyn but avoiding eye contact with her. If there was one thing he wanted to straighten out, it was that he wasn't interested in the young Lieutenant and that he was still annoyed at her for denying him a chance to rescue Daniel. Of course, Katelyn didn't seem too concerned about the Colonel's sour mood, simply ignoring him and looking expectantly towards the General as he got the whole debriefing started.

General Hammond took a moment to shift the papers in front of him into a neat pile, eyeing each member of the team carefully. Obviously he was waiting for someone to start but no one seemed willing to, inclining him to begin things himself.

"Okay, for starters, did you achieve your main objectives?" The General asked, raising an expectant eyebrow, "did you find SG-8? Did you contact the locals?"

Jack couldn't personally speak about the locals since he hadn't been one of the people to go and contact them. Nor had Teal'c, who remained silent when the General asked these questions to the whole team. Carter was the first to speak, deciding to break the awkward silence that had fallen upon the briefing room.

"We confirmed another member of SG-8 as dead," Carter replied, sounding a little glum, "he was lying with a bullet in his head by the DHD. I figured that he and the one that came through had been pursued by the enemy and killed accordingly."

Hammond frowned when he heard this, still completely confused as to who this "enemy" was. Well, unfortunately no one here really knew. However, Jack was fairly sure they had some evidence to check out later such as the advanced rifle Katelyn had brought back with her and the few IDs they had found on a few of the dead soldiers.

"I'm pretty sure I found another one of them, sir," Jack said, remembering his findings at the camp that the soldiers had set up and the ensuing chase, "they were throwing a whole lot of bodies into a pit and I'm sure I saw someone from SG-8 among them."

"Okay, I can see this keeps making less and less sense the further we go," Hammond said, exasperated, "how about we start from the beginning, from the moment you arrived. I want each of you to tell me what happened and who this 'enemy' is. I can already see they're not Goa'uld, but if they're not Goa'uld than who the hell are they?"

Jack shrugged, as did Katelyn. Teal'c and Carter didn't reply either since none of the team actually knew who this enemy was and why they had been on P5H-734. They could speculate all they wanted but that was what all of it was: speculation. There were hardly any solid facts to go with it. It was strange to be in this situation, having no idea just what they were up against even though they had encountered them several times in the last twelve hours. This reminded Jack that he needed some sleep, seeing as he had been up for a long time.

"Who wants to begin? From the very beginning?" Hammond asked. Nobody seemed quite willing to begin so Hammond decided to choose someone, looking towards Carter seeing as she was probably the more willing of the four.

"Captain, how about you start?" Hammond asked, "From the moment you arrived, describe everything that happened."

Carter nodded, taking a moment to think about what she was going to say as she attempted to remember all that had been discovered on the planet. Seconds later she began, describing the team's arrival through the stargate and their discovery of another dead SG-8 team member. They had also found that SG-8's camp had been suitably shot-up, pointing towards a possible hostile presence. Then SG-1 had headed into the rainforest with the intention of discovering more about the fate of SG-8, coming across the few dead bodies inside the small outpost structure and much evidence which pointed towards some sort of 'SDIOA' organization.

When Hammond heard this he frowned, as if something that Carter had said had gotten him worried.

"Something on your mind, sir?" Katelyn asked, noticing the change in Hammond's demeanour. The General nodded, taking a moment to think of a reply.

"The SDIOA, did you say?" He asked, before going on, "I've only just heard of them. They're a branch of the NID, focused on defence initiatives for the United States. Rumour has it they're one of those groups that thinks that the 'end justifies the means', thus they have no problem with stealing alien technology. Of course, they haven't had access to a stargate before so they've been Earthbound for most of the time.

"They're presence on another planet concerns me, though. That would imply that they managed to get off-world, most likely through a stargate. And you say these 'soldiers' had killed the SDIOA personnel in this outpost?"

Carter nodded. It occurred to Jack that this whole situation to do with P5H-734 just kept on getting more and more complicated, especially with the introduction of the NID into the equation. Well, not exactly the NID but a branch of them.

The NID was a secretive organization that SG-1 had tangled with in the past. For starters the NID (no one knew what the abbreviation stood for) had a habit of intruding on SGC affairs and attempting to gain benefits from captured alien prisoners and so forth, such as when the Tollan refugees had been here. The NID had intended to exploit them for their technology, something which had been prevented.

The NID had also stolen a weather control device, a Touchstone, from a peaceful people on a distant world. It had been the search for the Touchstone here on Earth that had lead SG-1 to discover that the NID had been using the secondary stargate uncovered from Antarctica, timing their arrivals and departures through it so they would not be detected by the equipment here in the SGC. After the Touchstone had been returned to its people the secondary stargate had been permanently sealed, something which had been done to ensure that no one else could use it.

Now, with what the General was saying, it seemed that it wasn't the NID that was exploiting this secondary stargate. Rather, it was the SDIOA that had somehow removed the "permanent" iris and sent their forces to P5H-734. Sure, this made some sense but what still didn't add up were the soldiers and their crazy leader that had killed most, if not all, of the SDIOA personnel. Obviously the bodies Jack had witnessed being burned had been SDIOA personnel, implying that…well, he wasn't too sure what it was implying.

"Uh, sir?" Jack asked, getting General Hammond's attention, "what does 'SDIOA' stand for?"

The General thought about this for a moment, having some trouble remembering it. He did manage to supply an answer, one that sounded close enough to the truth.

"I'm fairly sure it stands for 'Special Defence Initiatives and Operations Agency'. I can't be _absolutely_ certain, though."

Jack nodded, realizing that this piece of trivia didn't help him at all. Well, it was good to know just in case.

"What happened after that?" Hammond asked turning to Carter, "why were those SDIOA people dead?"

Carter continued with her recount of what had happened, describing their findings at the outpost. She mentioned the possibility that the planet had rich naquadah deposits judging from the crates of the valuable mineral that they had found at the outpost. However, the arrival of an armoured SUV sent the team into hiding nearby so they could observe who emerged from the vehicle.

"Armoured SUV?" Hammond was perplexed, "how did they get that onto the planet?"

"They probably drove it through the stargate," Jack replied, "the rings are pretty big, after all…"

Carter continued with the recount, saying how the two soldiers that had emerged had been outfitted in some sort of strong armour plating and armed with slightly more advanced weaponry. This encounter had lead to a firefight in which standard weapons seemed to have trouble penetrating the armour of the soldiers so Teal'c had to save the day by blasting both men down with his staff weapon.

Hammond listened carefully, intrigued. When Carter was finished with this section of the recount, he suggested a possible cause for all of this that Jack felt like kicking himself for not having thought of earlier.

"It looks to me that you stumbled upon a private little war," Hammond said, "a war between these armoured soldiers and the SDIOA. Why it's happening is anyone's guess but I can already tell that an event like this is something that I should report to the president immediately."

"You want to hear what happened next, sir?" Jack asked, "Because Teal'c and I know that the both of us were close to getting shot several times. And we think we found the leader of these soldiers, since this guy looked fairly important…"

Hammond nodded, intrigued at the whole story. A (simple?) rescue mission had become an all out fight for survival seeing as these armoured and heavily armed soldiers had wanted to kill the members of SG-1 rather badly, chasing them through thick rainforest and making sure to keep one of them alive for whatever reason. The more time they wasted here the less chance there was of finding Daniel alive and well and so Jack began to get more and more restless.

Jack explained how he and Teal'c separated from the rest of the team so they could follow the SUV's tire tracks back to where it had come from. This had taken a few hours but they had eventually come across a mountain complex that looked sort of like the one they were in now from the outside. What lay inside was anyone's guess since the whole place had been crawling with soldiers.

Jack described the leader and the way they had started burning the bodies of dead SDIOA personnel, including the body of another SG-8 member. It seemed that there was a rather major operation occurring on the planet, one that called for what Jack had guessed was some sort of "erasure of evidence", burning bodies and burying them. Or maybe their leader just enjoyed burning things, it was hard to tell.

He described the chase that had followed this when they had been discovered and how he had lost the advanced rifle he had recovered from a dead soldier. He realized that an object like that could very well have been reverse engineered, perhaps creating a new line of rifles that would serve them well against armoured targets. Jaffa came to mind almost immediately.

"Hey, Lieutenant, where's that gun you brought back?" He asked, turning to look at Katelyn who had been sitting quietly for most of the debriefing. No doubt a find such as an advanced weapon would be in a lab or stored away, although it did take a moment for the Lieutenant to answer.

"What? The rifle?" Katelyn frowned, thinking about this, "One of the technicians is mulling over it. Probably trying to figure out why it's so special…"

Hammond listened to this, nodding when Katelyn finished. This find of a slightly advanced weapon obviously interested him, a fact which was understandable since one major part of the stargate program was to retrieve advanced technology to help in the fight against the Goa'uld.

"We also have a few IDs we found on some of the dead soldiers," Jack said, remembering this. As he said this Carter brought out the few ID cards they had recovered from the wallets of two of the soldiers they had killed, as well as two ID cards found on deceased SDIOA personnel they had found at the outpost on the planet. Hammond took each of them, examining each card closely and looking a little confused at the find.

"These soldiers who killed SG-8 and tried killing the four of you are from Earth?" He asked, frowning.

Carter was the one to reply, interrupting Jack before he could do the same.

"Well sir, that's what it looks like," she said, "and if they're from Earth we can look them up. There's bound to be record of them somewhere…"

"And from there we can trace them to this private army," Katelyn added, managing a snide glance towards the Captain, having effectively stolen her thunder, "and then we can find out who's in charge of this army. Not only that, we can probably find out a bit about this 'SDIOA' organization as well."

Hammond nodded to all of this, knowing as well as the rest of them that these findings would help figure out the mystery that surrounded this private advanced army and the SDIOA organization.

"Hey, let's not forget about Daniel," Jack said, noticing that the conversation had trailed a little off topic. A good friend was currently at the mercy of what appeared to be a ruthless enemy yet here they were, sitting around and wasting time with talk. "He's still out there and probably in the care of that psychopathic pyromaniac Teal'c and I saw…"

"That's why I have the full-most intentions of organizing a rescue mission for Dr. Jackson," Hammond said. Jack breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to see that Hammond hadn't completely forgotten about this "minor" sidenote.

"However, we must further determine the nature of this enemy and of what's occurring on P5H-734," he continued, "I don't want to send you back, only for you to all become casualties…"

Jack was quite certain he wouldn't become a casualty but then again SG-8 had all been killed on the same planet because of the same bad guys. The Colonel hated wasting time like this and was becoming impatient. Daniel could be at death's door for all they knew.

"How about we go back while you and everyone else figures out the deeper mysteries of the bad guys?" Jack asked, unable to keep all of the annoyance from showing in his voice, "Daniel's still on that planet and he could be getting the crap beaten out of him for whatever information those armoured psychos want."

Hammond clearly understood what point Jack was trying to make and nodded, taking the time to think about this for a moment. They all knew the risks that were involved in a rescue mission, especially one to a far away world where the stargate itself could be under heavy guard. Jack knew their chances of a successful rescue were slim, unless they had reinforcements. Hammond was probably going to give them the opportunity sooner or later, Jack simply preferred it to be sooner.

"And we'll need help," the Colonel said, not afraid to admit this, "and some heavy firepower. Preferably more Goa'uld weapons, although an M60 machine gun or maybe an M249 wouldn't hurt…"

"I don't want to sound negative," Katelyn said suddenly, getting everyone's attention. The four other heads that had turned to face her must have thrown her off since she looked uneasy all of a sudden, taking a few seconds to continue speaking.

"The stargate's going to be under heavy guard," Katelyn said, "we'll get cut down before we have a chance to react once we're through…"

"Unless we come through the planet's other stargate," Carter said. This remark caught everybody else's attention, Hammond's especially.

"What 'other stargate', Captain?" Hammond asked, frowning and sounding a little doubtful at the validity of this statement, "are you saying P5H-734 has two stargates?"

"It's only a guess, sir," Carter said sheepishly, as if she realized how wrong she could be about this seemingly wild guess, "but it came to my attention when we were dialling out. The DHD there had no unique point of origin, instead using the symbol that represented the constellation of Aquila as its point of origin."

"And I'm guessing that means P5H-734 is in Aquila?" Jack asked, thinking that this point needed some clarification. Carter nodded, reaffirming the obvious.

"This might imply that this stargate was brought at a later time and that the original point of origin became invalid, seeing as the stargate was from elsewhere," Carter explained, that look in her eyes that showed that she knew she was onto something, "so the stargate reverted to a standard symbol as its point of origin. Over time someone's had the sense to remove the non-working symbol off of the DHD."

"You might be right about the stargate being from another planet but that doesn't mean there's another one lying around elsewhere," Hammond said, "it could just mean that P5H-734 never had a stargate until that one was brought there."

"Who brought it there?" Jack asked, noticing the one little void of information and deciding it needed some clarification.

"By Khnum," Katelyn said bluntly. When she saw Jack and Hammond's uncertain looks she decided to explain this statement, starting with what happened when they met the planet's locals.

"Turns out there's a Goa'uld System Lord called Khnum and he brought the stargate and the humans to P5H-734," Katelyn said, "the locals have legends about it, telling how Khnum brought them there to work on the naquadah mines before he left along with his forces about a thousand years ago."

"Is Khnum still alive?" Hammond asked, noticeably concerned. Another Goa'uld to deal with on top of Heru'ur and Sokar would complicate matters even further.

"No idea. He hasn't appeared anywhere we know of, so either he's in another part of the galaxy or he's dead."

"Hopefully it's the latter," Jack said.

Once this fact was clarified, Carter took the conversation towards what she had been speaking of earlier. According to her, there was another stargate on P5H-734, the original one. This may explain why the armoured soldiers hadn't been grouped around the one in the clearing and rather situated around the mountain complex that Jack and Teal'c had discovered, thus implying that the stargate was in there. This was all just speculation however so no one could be sure. Hammond took a few minutes discussing the finer points with the team, deciding whether or not such an early rescue mission was in order.

"I have teams SG-3 and SG-5 in a ready state," Hammond said, "they would no doubt be of immense help to you in rescuing Dr. Jackson."

Jack was pleased to hear this since it meant that maybe that rescue mission was coming sooner than he had thought. All the better then, since he was certain that those psychos who had Daniel captive weren't treating him well. However, he was still annoyed at Katelyn seeing as it had been her who had stopped him from going back to get Daniel in the first place when he had clearly had some chance to rescue the archaeologist.

"However, the way you plan this mission is up to you and the rest of your team, Colonel," Hammond said, looking towards Jack with a serious frown, "if you want to make a gamble on there being a second stargate you can go right ahead. Or you can return to P5H-734 like you arrived there to first time."

Jack nodded, able to see that Hammond didn't really want to interfere in what could be a very important mission for the team. Both of the options they had for returning to P5H-734 had risks: going through the stargate in the clearing meant a potential firefight while trying to get through the secondary stargate on the faraway planet might backfire since there might not even _be_ a secondary stargate.

"I want your proposed plans on my desk within two hours," Hammond said, standing up with the intention of leaving, "that way I have more time to organize SG-3 and SG-5." He paused for a moment, regarding the team seated before him. "You're dismissed."

Hammond left the room, leaving the four mostly exhausted team members sitting in the room alone. All four of them realized that they had more or less denied themselves the opportunity of decent rest in exchange for preparing and executing a rescue mission in order to rescue Daniel. However, if it meant saving a friend then it was well worth it. Of course, Katelyn had only been on the job for over a day so she barely knew Daniel but she seemed as intent on the task as Jack, Carter and Teal'c were.

"Let's figure out what we're going to do," Jack said, breaking the brief silence that had fallen upon the room, "the sooner we do that the sooner we can go and find Daniel. Hopefully those psychos in the armour back on that far flung planet aren't treating him too harshly."


	16. The Naquadah Mines of P5H734

**Chapter Fourteen: The Naquadah mines of P5H-734**

**Location:** P5H-734

Daniel Jackson had been captured. Well, he wasn't too surprised at the development: the mission had been going from bad to worse ever since he and the rest of the team had arrived here on P5H-734, known as "Taleria" to the local population. The mission had started off as a simple, yet somewhat urgent rescue mission to find SG-8. Now it seemed that he and the rest of SG-1 had stumbled upon a private little war that had been waging for an unspecified amount of time prior to their arrival. He had had the feeling that they should have left after they found the second SG-8 member dead but of course he hadn't voiced his uncertainties about whatever had lain ahead of them at that time, curious just as the others had been to find out whether or not the other two members of SG-8 were still alive. He sincerely doubted they were after what he had seen during the drive along the muddy rainforest road, the SUV bouncing along beneath him.

Part of his left leg stung painfully, having been hastily and somewhat carefully bandaged up by one of the armoured soldiers. The bullet had simply grazed the flesh there but regardless of the extent of the wound it still hurt quite a lot. He did his best to ignore the pain, instead gazing out of the side windows of the SUV as it rumbled along the rainforest road. His mind was filled with questions and speculations, most of which he assumed were either close to correct or completely wrong. For one thing he was still trying to determine whether it was probable that this planet had a second stargate, just like Earth did. The DHD at the stargate out in the clearing had lacked any unique point of origin and when he thought back to when he had dialled for Earth moments before his capture he remembered that one of the DHD's panels had been missing, leaving an empty space instead.

_Someone's removed it,_ he thought. It made sense that the stargate out in the clearing had been brought from elsewhere, thus rendering the unique point of origin obsolete and making the device revert to whatever was closest. That meant that P5H-734 was in the constellation of Aquila somewhere and no doubt once a planet that the Goa'uld had ruled. The Goa'uld had obviously taken the care to remove an obsolete panel on the DHD seeing as the unique point of origin was no longer needed.

That left the blatant possibility of a second stargate, perhaps the original one that had been left behind by whoever had left the stargate buried in Antarctica back on Earth. That meant P5H-734 had been important to somebody else long ago, perhaps the original builders of the stargate.

The consequences of this realization presented many possibilities. Not only that but it also complicated matters further, implying that there were remnants of an advanced civilization located somewhere on this planet. Why there had been another people from Earth here already didn't make much sense, especially when most of those people had been killed by an enterprising force of slightly more advanced people from Earth.

_This is really confusing_. Daniel removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, realizing just how tired he was. He hadn't slept for at least twelve hours, maybe a little more. If it weren't for all the recent excitement he would have probably have fallen asleep by now. He was still trying, having been seated in the back of this SUV for about ten minutes, watching the rainforest go by as well as occasionally glancing at the other SUV that had started up the road behind them in their wake. Seated on the backseat to his left was one of the soldiers, outfitted in a full suit of the lightweight yet strong armour while his features remained hidden by the menacing helmet and tinted visor over the eyes. He wasn't carrying a rifle, rather a pistol which was holstered at his waist and in Daniel's reach. Of course, the archaeologist didn't think that trying to escape would be the wisest move seeing as there were two more soldiers in the armoured and roofed vehicle with him, one seated in the passenger seat with a rifle on his lap while the other was driving. Both would definitely quell any of his attempts at escape. Even if he somehow managed to get out of the SUV then there would always be the soldiers travelling in the one behind him, no doubt there to prevent his escape.

Who were these soldiers anyway? And where were they getting their advanced equipment from? Of course, the people back at Earth could definitely use some of that armour and since one of the primary goals of the SG teams was to recover anything to help them in their fight against the Goa'uld then highly durable armour would make a perfect find.

Daniel sat quietly, occasionally glancing at the soldier seated next to him. He didn't even look at the archaeologist, preferring to look straight ahead or shift his gaze out the window at his side, whatever suited him at the time.

Daniel went through the mission through his head once again, trying his best to remember all the little hints that may help him work out what was going on. There weren't many but he was sure he was onto the main gist of what was going on here; he was hoping that wherever they were taking him would provide some answers.

There had already been humans here before SG-8's arrival judging by the discovery of the outpost, apparently owned by the organization known as the 'SDIOA'. Daniel had never heard of them before but he was judging that they were in much the same league as the NID, perhaps even a subsidiary group. How they had ended up on a faraway planet without anyone back on Earth noticing was beyond him, but perhaps the secondary stargate was still in use after all. He and the rest of SG-1 had been assured that Earth's secondary stargate would be sealed with a permanent iris after the Touchstone incident. Obviously this plan had been thrown out the window for the convenience of the SDIOA, whoever they were. Unless they had somehow snuck a trip through the stargate back at the SGC but such an operation would not go unnoticed so this little speculation was obviously way off of the truth.

This still didn't explain how this force of armoured soldiers and their leader, Roland Halverson as he had said he was, came to be on this planet. Perhaps they had managed a trip through the secondary stargate, who knew? Daniel certainly didn't and he was trying his best to figure out just what was going on, confused over the whole situation. How did everything fit together? It had to in some way; otherwise he had stumbled upon a very befuddled set of circumstances.

Roland Halverson, the somewhat odd leader of the force of advanced soldiers that were now his captors, seemed to have known Daniel. This surprised him since he had personally never met or even heard of Roland Halverson and thus had no clue as to how the man had found out about him. Obviously he had found out somewhere somehow but the place and the method were unknown to Daniel.

These soldiers were here for some reason and one of them was probably to get rid of the SDIOA. Again, Daniel realized he had no clue as to who both parties represented and what their reasons for being here were. It seemed like such an over-the-top situation, definitely different to all the other times he had been in a dangerous circumstance. There was naquadah here no doubt, perhaps one of the reasons why both parties had chosen this world. The SDIOA outpost had been full of the stuff, probably having been mined from somewhere nearby. Then there were the locals who seemed mostly oblivious to the fact that there were two warring factions out in their planet's rainforest. At least, the locals had been oblivious up until the armoured soldiers had decided to raid the town in an effort to find Daniel, Carter and Katelyn. This had in turn forced the three of them to make their escape back to the planet's stargate and this had lead to Daniel getting captured.

No doubt Jack and perhaps Teal'c and Carter were pressing Hammond for a rescue mission. He had no idea what Katelyn would be thinking, being new and all and the one who had stopped Jack from going back for him. Daniel had no hard feelings against her for doing that, seeing as Jack would have most certainly gotten shot in his attempts to rescue him. It was better that it was only Daniel rather than both him and Jack who got captured since chances were these soldiers had the intention of interrogating who they captured.

Daniel didn't like the thought of interrogation very much but so far no harm, save for his bullet wound in the leg, had come to him. Roland Halverson had made it quite clear that he wanted Daniel alive and not dead, something that these soldiers had listened to and were carrying out fairly decently. None of them had said anything to the archaeologist, simply having forced him into this armoured car and started to drive him to wherever it was they had their headquarters. Daniel was curious as to where this was, thinking that it might possibly be the place Jack and Teal'c had found during their hike through the rainforest after the team had split up.

The silence in the SUV was somewhat unnerving. This was especially in the way the soldiers seemed be completely ignoring him. None of the three inside the vehicle with him had so much as spared him a quick glance during the beginning of the trip, instead keeping their gazes either straight ahead or towards whatever was outside their windows. The one that was driving kept his concentration on the muddy and uneven road before them, driving carefully through the rainforest along what seemed to be a well beaten path.

Outside was the same old rainforest Daniel had been subjected to for the last twelve hours. The day was turning into night on this particular planet, the sunlight diminishing as the single sun went lower and lower until it was only halfway up from the horizon. The clouds above remained grey and ominous, perhaps with a shade of orange and purple due to the dusk sunlight conditions. There was no sign that the clouds above would be breaking up anytime soon, instead they looked thicker and more threatening than usual. The rainforest was still looking wet and dreary and no doubt as cold as it had been since he had arrived here.

He sat back in the backseat, noticing that his uniform was covered in dried mud from his numerous stumbles earlier in the day. His skin was wet and grimy, giving a rather unpleasant and dirty feel to it. He needed a wash to say the least although something told him he wouldn't be getting one anytime soon.

Finally he decided he would at least try and break the silence since he was already bored. Usually he would have brought a book to read or a diary to write into but unfortunately the soldiers had confiscated all of his gear before they had forced him into this vehicle. He was now in his standard green uniform, an outfit that was also quite dirty.

"So…ah…where are we going?" He asked aloud, glancing at the soldier sitting next to him and then towards the two in the front. All save for the one seated next to him ignored him completely. The soldier seated next to him merely glanced over, acknowledging his existence for the first time in the trip.

The helmet and visor hid the soldier's features away entirely so it was impossible for Daniel to determine what he was thinking simply by the way he was looking at him. This presented a rather imposing, apparently emotionless figure who continued to give the archaeologist a seemingly lifeless stare through the dark visor.

"So you're not the talkative type then?" Daniel said, more to himself than to anyone else. The soldier seated next to him turned his gaze away from the archaeologist and back towards whatever was outside the window. Unsurprisingly there was more rainforest outside.

Daniel decided he would simply remain silent until someone else actually spoke to him, that way he would feel like less of an idiot for trying to talk to a bunch of seemingly mute soldiers. His eyes darted back down at the holstered handgun at the soldier's waist, well within his reach but he quickly lost any faith in an escape attempt. He just wasn't in a position to even consider trying, seeing as he could be easily gunned down if he somehow managed to escape from the moving vehicle.

It was a bit of a surprise when the driver pulled the SUV to a halt, the sudden ceasing of motion alerting Daniel to the fact that he had completely lost track of where they had been travelling. With the sudden stopping of the engines he gazed out of the window, seeing that they had parked themselves near some sort of security checkpoint near the base of a tall, snow-capped mountain. Jagged rocky outcrops lined the base of this mountain while an artificially created tunnel entrance had been built amongst them, large enough to fit a few cars in at the same time. Above this tunnel entrance was a sign bearing the words "SDIOA OFF-WORLD MOUNTAIN COMPLEX". Similarities to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex back on Earth came to mind, Daniel being surprised at just how quite large these SDIOA facilities were. Around the clearing more of the soldiers patrolled while several of the SUVs had been parked nearby, close to a number of large cargo trailers that were built to be driven by normal trucks. Several men in orange overalls and hard-hats milled about these cargo trailers having opened the doors at the rear of one of them. However, Daniel could not see what was inside for he was not at an appropriate angle to do so.

How could someone have set up such an operation off-world without anyone knowing about it? Things here just kept on getting more and more complicated. Obviously these soldiers had taken over this complex and the surrounding area, having removed any of the SDIOA personnel that might have been around.

Daniel watched as a non-helmeted guard approached the side of the SUV from within the nearby guard booth. The driver of the SUV winded down his side's window and flashed an ID card at the guard who shook his head after a brief examination of the card, allowing the SUV to pass. The vehicle's engines kicked into life again and the driver guided the SUV towards the tunnel entrance, the inside of the SUV going a little darker as they entered the tunnel.

Daniel noticed immediately that the artificial structuring on the walls became more and more sparse, as if someone had taken shortcuts during construction. Solid rock walls constituted most of the tunnel which ended at some sort of storage area. Several soldiers were on patrol right through the length of the tunnel which seemed to go right to the centre of the very mountain above. It was here the SUV stopped again and Daniel suddenly realized that they had finally arrived at their intended destination, having the feeling that he was one step closer to an interrogation or at the very least a rigid questioning.

They would probably want the iris codes, something he wasn't too keen on betraying. These soldiers had the firepower and the numbers to hold a serious assault on the SGC, one that may even be successful if they caught the people there by surprise. He wasn't about to betray the iris codes and allow these obviously ruthless foes access to the SGC but then again he had never been trained to withstand torture. He was a mere civilian who had been brought into the stargate program by someone who had known that his vast knowledge of history and ancient cultures would have been a vital asset.

The soldiers in the SUV exited the vehicle, the one that had been seated next to Daniel moving around and opening his side's door. He grabbed Daniel by at the shoulder and quite literally pulled him out of the car, forcing the archaeologist to stand on his wounded leg. Daniel grunted with pain, wobbling unsteadily on it for a moment while trying to balance himself on the SUV.

"Easy…" Daniel had the feeling these soldiers wouldn't have time to hear him complain so he decided to keep his mouth mostly shut until the real and inevitable questioning began. He gazed around the dark tunnel, lit by light sets into the walls and ceilings at evenly spaced intervals. In the storage area ahead were several crates and what looked to be some digging equipment, as if some sort of excavation had been taking place. Further beyond this storage area was a fenced off section of tunnel, dark and foreboding save for the few lights set up by more of the hard-hatted engineers and technicians. They seemed to be at work on something but he couldn't see what and before he had a chance to take a closer look he was pushed along by the soldier escorting him, being taken to a large chalk circle drawn on the floor nearby. He had a feeling about what was coming next but couldn't quite work out why it was being used in a place like this.

The soldier pressed something at his wrist, some sort of device that Daniel only caught a glimpse off before the five large and floating rings ascended from the floor to envelop them. There was a flash of light and seconds later they rematerialized in a brightly lit room somewhere further below their last position, a room lined with computer monitors and filled with about five technicians and a pair of guarding soldiers. The rings that constituted the ring transporter zoomed back up into the ceiling and Daniel managed to regather his bearings, trying to figure out where he was.

This room seemed to be some sort of computer room while a window up ahead provided a view of a much larger room outside. He could see the stone walls, implying that they were even further underground. The lights in the room through the window provided a good illumination of what was inside and what he saw simultaneously answered some of the questions in his mind while creating new ones.

Positioned at the end of what appeared to be some sort of makeshift gateroom was a stargate, pristine in condition and with a short ramp lowering from its mouth. Daniel raced over to the window, looking at the several soldiers waiting below while one of them worked a DHD, keying in several symbols. The chevrons locked in place and the immediate splash as the wormhole formed occurred before the wormhole itself stabilized, forming the seemingly magical wall of rippling blue-white energy.

The guard escorting Daniel came up from behind him and grabbed him again, redirecting him towards a door across the room. The archaeologist cared little for the obviously annoyed soldier, instead he milled over what he had just seen. So he was right about there being another stargate here, but what was this place? What was this facility's purpose? And why was there a ring transporter here?

So many questions, hardly any answers. He realized it might have been a good idea to get the coordinates that the soldiers in this facility's gateroom had keyed in but he hadn't thought of that, barely getting a glance at them before he had been grabbed by the soldier. He assumed that those soldiers in the gateroom were heading out to some other planet; perhaps back to wherever they operated from.

The soldier opened the door ahead and guided him into a lengthy hallway, one that sort of reminded him of the corridors of the SGC but a little brighter. Instead of dull greys there were bright beige colours and light browns, as if someone had taken the care in ensuring that this place didn't look as dull as other military installations did. A few soldiers wandered past, glancing at Daniel with obviously curious glances although it was hard to tell since the soldiers were wearing those feature hiding helmets to go with their armour.

The soldier escorting Daniel guided him through the corridor, the pair passing a few closed doors before coming to a set of stairs that lead up and down. The soldier guided Daniel upstairs and the archaeologist managed to struggle free of his grip, making it obvious that he didn't need the soldier holding him the whole time. The soldier let him go, unperturbed and not at all concerned that Daniel may try and escape, knowing full well that any attempts at this would be foolhardy.

The last thing on Daniel's mind at the moment was escape. He knew such an act would be next to impossible, especially since he seemed to be right in the enemy's main base on this world. These soldiers had obviously taken control of this facility from the SDIOA, using the stargate here for their own ends. It made sense to think that some of the soldiers had arrived on this planet through the stargate in this facility, seeing as they seemed to be more centred around this mountain facility than the stargate out in the clearing on the surface.

Daniel was especially curious as to what the purpose of this facility was and how it could have been set up without anyone in the SGC noticing. It occurred to him that all manner of secretive organizations may have exploited the stargates on Earth at one point or another so in turn facilities such as this could be surprisingly common. Of course, Daniel was only speculating according to what he had seen so far, having that strange sort of feeling that he had been here before.  
Well, comparisons to the SGC were obvious. The hallways reminded him of the base back on Earth, except with a brighter colour scheme. However, these built up underground facilities seemed to have been merged with an already existing series of tunnels and caverns as if to save on the time and effort needed to construct a place like this. Even now the corridor ended at a rough stone wall and if he wasn't mistaken there were traces of a glistening dark mineral amongst the hard and ancient stone, as if ordinary rock wasn't the only thing here.

_This base was built in a naquadah mine_. It was the only possibility he could come up with judging from the noticeable traces of the heavy mineral that were in the stone walls. It also made some sense that if someone wanted to construct a complex facility in a short time then building it in an existing set of mining tunnels would be a logical move. From what he could gather, the SDIOA had set up this base and had just recently lost it to these armoured and high-tech soldiers. Not only had this facility been built in a naquadah mine but it had been complemented with a ring transporter, an obvious piece of technology the SDIOA had "acquired" from the Goa'uld.

The soldier escorting Daniel guided him towards a particular door, one that lead right into a large room that instantly reminded the archaeologist of the briefing room back at the SGC. The table was long with several chairs lining its sides. A water dispenser with appropriate plastic cups nearby was over in the corner while an office was visible through a doorway at the other end of the room. No one was in the office and from what Daniel could see the office itself had been effectively trashed, papers littering the floor while the chair and desk had been flipped onto their sides. Someone had taken the time to search the office, ransacking its contents.

The soldier guided Daniel to one of the vinyl swivel chairs at one side of the table, forcing the archaeologist into the chair with a firm grip and quick shove. A set of windows was at one side of the room, allowing for a view of the gate room beyond. The stargate there was still active, the eerie blue light filling part of the briefing room. Daniel tried to get a better look but the metal blast shields closed down over the windows, preventing him from watching what was occurring inside the gateroom. Instead, he turned his gaze ahead of him, trying to figure out why he had been brought here.

He figured that he was about to meet with someone although he couldn't quite work out why he had been taken to this room. Usually interrogations took place in secluded and small bleak rooms, not large and ornate conference rooms such as this. Maybe this facility lacked small, bleak interrogation rooms. Whatever the reason he preferred comfortable rooms such as this, thinking that whatever the reason he was here that he may have been important to somebody here to deserve the attention.

He wasn't half-surprised when the door of the briefing room opened and a man in the normal blue-grey soldier's outfit walked in. However, he was lacking the helmet and thus his head and his facial features were quite visible. He must have been in his early to mid thirties, dark haired and blue eyed. A frown creased his youngish features when he saw the dirty and tired looking Daniel Jackson seated at the briefing table.

Daniel recognized him as one of the men that had been present when he had been captured. It occurred to him that he could very well have been in the vehicle that had brought him here; it's just that Daniel would never have been able to tell since the three soldiers with him in the vehicle had all concealed their identities with helmets.

This new arrival glanced towards the soldier that had escorted Daniel through the facility and nodded towards the door in turn, indicating that this man wanted the soldier to leave. The soldier obeyed, departing the room and leaving Daniel in with the authoritative looking unhelmeted soldier.

Now was the chance to ask questions. Daniel wasn't sure where he should actually start however and so struggled to think of a good question, one that didn't have the potential to annoy his captors. Before the archaeologist could say anything the soldier spoke, his voice tinged with a German or Austrian accent, probably German. It wasn't anything major, more of a subtle hint to his cultural background.

"The boss will be here to speak with you soon," the man said, the boss probably being the Roland Halverson man who had been present at the time of Daniel's capture, "he has much to tell you, Dr. Jackson. I'm sure you would be wise enough to listen…"

"Uh…well, you seem to know my name but I don't know yours," Daniel said, deciding to find out more about his captors. Names would be a good start so this was the first thing he intended on finding out, figuring that this man had a fairly high standing in this force of high-tech soldiers.

"I'm Lukas Farber," the soldier replied, "I'm sort of a second-in-command to Roland Halverson, the leader of our enterprising little force. You're Daniel Jackson, archaeologist and member of SG-1. You theorized that the pyramids of Egypt had been built by aliens and well…" Lukas smiled, bearing a set of pearly white teeth. "You were right about that, weren't you?"  
Daniel didn't like the way this man seemed to know him so well but figured it ought to be expected, seeing as he had been brought here in the first place. They had knowledge of the stargates, a knowledge that Daniel had no doubt been the first to obtain for the people of Earth since the Goa'uld abandoned the planet a few thousand years ago. Thus it made sense these soldiers knew about him.

"You're probably full of questions," Lukas said, getting this particular assumption correct, "but don't bother asking me anything that requires a complicated answer. The boss should be by soon and then you can ask him. He has much to tell you, I think."

There was a brief silence while Daniel figured out whether it was worth saying anything or not.

"Then why are you here?" Daniel asked, realizing just how little he knew about his captors.

Lukas smiled at Daniel's lack of knowledge of his situation although the archaeologist himself didn't see the joke.

"I'm here to make sure you get settled," Lukas replied, "right now we're setting up a room for you although you won't need it for a while. The boss has a lot to tell you and I'm sure he'll be willing to answer any of your questions as well."

One thing was right on Daniel's mind, not too much of a major concern but something he was still a bit curious about. He may as well ask, seeing that he'll be stuck here for a while until he could figure out a way to get out of here.

"How come he wants me alive?" Daniel asked, "He didn't seem to have much trouble in killing SG-8…"  
Lukas shrugged, unable to provide an answer.

"Why don't you ask the boss when he arrives?" Lukas asked, "in the meantime you should just sit tight. He'll be here soon enough but you have to understand, he's a busy man…"

"I can tell," Daniel replied, deciding it was best to play along to this man's ramblings and obvious admiration of Roland Halverson. One thing Daniel would be doing is looking Roland's name up once he got back to Earth, _if_ he ever got back to Earth. Something told him that escape would be difficult and so he figured that biding his time was perhaps a better alternative for now. No doubt he would get his opportunity some time in the future; he just didn't want to risk it now especially since he may be getting the answers he wanted about what was going on here on this planet from Roland.

"I've been told to keep watch on you until the boss arrives," Lukas said, "and that's what I'm going to do. So don't try anything, alright? I wouldn't want to shoot you…"

"I've already been shot once today," Daniel said, referring to his wounded left leg, "I don't want it to happen again."

"Good. Then maybe you'll just sit quietly and wait until the boss arrives?" Lukas asked, smiling that smile of his again. Daniel found this man to be only a little odd, perhaps finding the archaeologist's predicament amusing.

"Sure," Daniel replied, unable to think of anything else he could do. The man who wanted to talk to him would be here soon, apparently, and may give him the lowdown on what was happening here on this planet. Daniel would wait until he had found out enough before trying to escape, already contemplating on his first course of action. No doubt there were other means to get up to the surface aside from the ring transporter so once this meeting with Roland Halverson was finished he would try scouting for other escape routes. Until then he had to wait and bide his time.


	17. Interlopers

**Chapter Fifteen: Interlopers**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado Springs

For her first day here it had been an exciting one. Not only had she gotten to travel through the stargate to a distant planet but she had encountered a surprisingly advanced human enemy that had, in fact, never been encountered by any SG team previously. She was, of course, referring to the armoured soldiers that had been in force on P5H-734 and had seemed rather intent on killing not only her but the rest of the team. Now they had Daniel and she felt partly guilty about this occurrence.

First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine had been trying to get some sleep, having been awake for over twelve hours while on P5H-734. She had been alert and wide awake then, unable to take any rest seeing as she and the others had been pursued by the enemy relentlessly. She could remember everything that had occurred quite well, from their arrival to their escape through the stargate. She remembered their first encounter of the soldiers near the SDIOA outpost and how she had taken it upon herself to open fire first. Probably not what Colonel O'Neill would have wanted but definitely the best course of action in her perspective. Not only had these soldiers been fitted with armour almost near impervious to bullets but they had been armed with slightly more advanced rifles, one of which she had managed to bring back with her from the mission. That rifle was now in one of the labs here in the SGC, getting researched in an attempt to duplicate it and discover more of how it worked. It seemed basic enough but was made out of a lightweight alloy that, according to the lab technician who had spoken to her about it, said didn't exist on this planet. Understandably such a find could benefit the stargate program but she didn't think too much of it. It was just a gun, after all. They had plenty others lying around the base, some of them even alien.

Whoever those soldiers were they hadn't been too experienced. She could tell in the way they had gone about combat, only occasionally taking cover and seeming to think that they were invulnerable. They had almost been invulnerable to ordinary bullets, most of which simply pinged off of their armour. That had been until Katelyn had retrieved one of them rifles which had far more of an effect on their armour. Not only that, but Goa'uld weapons such as the staff weapon and zat'ni'katel worked on them just as well as they worked on anything else.

Katelyn was dressed in standard on-base uniform which included the black, tight-fitting shirt. Her standard-issue green jacket was folded and neatly stowed away on the table next to her bunk while the holster containing her Colt pistol was laid out on top of the folded jacket. She was alone in the room, seeing as she was the only one trying to get some sleep at nine in the morning. For some reason she was having trouble actually willing herself into at the very least a nap, perhaps since there was so much on her mind. Not only about the mission she had come back from but of the way the others in the team perceived her. She could tell that Captain Carter didn't like her and Katelyn had quite willingly returned the favour. Jack, on the other hand, didn't seem to think much of her, especially noticeable when he had ordered her to go with Carter and Daniel to the local town while they had been on P5H-734. This was evidence that he didn't think much of her skills, seeing as this order denied her a chance to accompany Jack and Teal'c to investigate the enemy camp, a much more dangerous and exciting task. She liked the dangerous and exciting parts of her job and would always jump at the chance to go on a potentially dangerous mission. She enjoyed it, the thrill of combat and the adrenaline rush it provided. Nothing in this world could beat the thrill of getting shot at, even if it was a little dangerous.

That was one reason why she had joined up in the first place. The Air Force seemed the most thrilling of all the military careers she could have chosen, flying high speed jet aircraft and blowing things up. Sure, that was only during war time but even a practice flight excited her. Her father, a high-ranking General, ensured she got the best positions in the Air Force and thus this had eventually taken her here, to the SGC. Now she was the newest (but temporary) member of a team with people who didn't quite trust her yet. Well, she would just have to ride this all out until she was given her own team to command.

First she would have to prove herself. She figured she was already close to doing that seeing as she had performed exceptionally well during their time on P5H-734. At least, this was what _she_ thought. She was actually yet to hear anyone else tell her this but she was sure her commendation and promotion weren't far off.

One thing she had made sure to do once the debriefing with Hammond had finished was to have a good long shower, seeing as she had been mostly covered in mud and grime from her time on P5H-734. The place had been cold, dreary and muddy to say the least and it most certainly seemed that they would be going back there soon enough. At least, once Hammond allowed a return mission to find Daniel. The first trip there had been to rescue SG-8, something which hadn't happened since that missing team was most surely dead. What chance did Daniel have in the hands of this new enemy if they had previously had no issue with killing a whole research team?

Still, Colonel O'Neill would persist with going back there to rescue Daniel. She liked the Colonel, even if he didn't really like her. She would make sure to change his opinion of her as her stint in SG-1 continued. The Colonel probably didn't think much of her after she had prevented him from going back to get Daniel but the situation during their escape had been hectic and they had been close to all getting killed. She had done Jack a favour by pushing him into the wormhole and back to the SGC, leaving Daniel behind at the mercy of the enemy. She hoped Daniel was still alive, even if he was a bit of a geek. Otherwise her "friendship" with Jack O'Neill would never recover.

Now here she was, thinking things over and trying to get to sleep. Usually an overactive mind made getting to sleep harder but she was having trouble _not_ thinking about all that had happened. It had been an exciting first day but a tiresome one seeing as she had hiked through thick rainforest during her time on the distant planet. Now she was trying to determine answers to all the questions the mission had brought up, such as what the 'SDIOA' was and who the high-tech soldiers were. No one here in the SGC knew the answers to these questions, save for Hammond's speculation that the SDIOA was some sort of secretive organization he had vaguely heard about.

Katelyn sat up on her bunk, unable to get to sleep. She looked towards the digital clock sitting on the table by her bedside, seeing that it was just past nine o'clock in the morning. They had been on that planet since about six or seven pm last night and had arrived back just over twelve hours later. That wasn't too long a time but it had been long enough for all sorts of developments to occur, such as Daniel getting captured. It felt as if all she was waiting for was for Hammond's okay to go back to the planet and rescue Daniel.

Well, she had managed to get some short rest. Perhaps a walk through the complex could ease up all the things on her mind so with some reluctance she climbed off of the bunk, gathered up her green BDU jacket and put it on before heading out of the room. At this time in the morning the daily routine of the base was just getting underway with technicians and maintenance crews heading on their way to their assigned stations. Katelyn decided it would probably be best to get something decent to eat and started to head for the cafeteria, sort of hoping that no one she didn't particularly like weren't there. Last thing she needed was a confrontation like her last one with Captain Carter.

The Lieutenant took the nearest elevator up to sublevel twenty-two, where the SGC's cafeteria was located. When she arrived she found it to be mostly empty save for a few small groups of people, one group of which looked to be another SG team having breakfast together. She headed for the trays of food at the end of the cafeteria, noticing that one of the men from the other SG team was eyeing her carefully.

She was used to receiving such looks from young men and so ignored him, concentrating on choosing a cereal to eat for breakfast. She was about to settle for something when the same man that had been eyeing her stepped up next to her, pretending to be choosing something to eat. This guy looked to be in his late thirties to early forties, probably the former. His BDU bore the rank of Colonel and his arm patch made it clear that he was from SG-5, one of the team's Hammond mentioned may accompany SG-1 on the rescue mission to get Daniel back from the enemy on P5H-734.

"So…" Before the Colonel could begin Katelyn had interrupted him, getting some satisfaction from the surprised look that crossed his face.

"I'm not interested," she replied bluntly while grabbing a plastic bowl from the stack nearby and filling it with corn flakes, "so you can sit back down with your friends…"  
The Colonel smiled, chuckling slightly. Katelyn didn't see the joke but didn't say anything, instead she grabbed the nearby jug of milk and started pouring some into her bowl with the cereal.

"No, no, you've got this the wrong way Lieutenant," the Colonel said, "I was just wondering…how's things in SG-1?"

Katelyn raised an eyebrow. She failed to see where this was going. She peered at the name on the Colonel's jacket: KESSLER. He was quite obviously the lead of SG-5 and reminded her somewhat of Colonel O'Neill, except Kessler seemed more of the smiling idiot type.

"They're a tight knit group, they are," Kessler continued, "a new team member such as yourself wouldn't be well received by most…Especially with Jack. He doesn't quite like interlopers…"

"Colonel O'Neill and I get along fine," Katelyn said, knowing that this was close enough to the truth in order to not be a blatant lie. Sure, Jack may be angry at her for now about leaving Daniel behind but she was sure his bad mood would blow over by the next day. He seemed the type who would be angry one instant and then quite happy the next.

"Sure you do," Kessler said. He paused for a moment, somewhat surprised at Katelyn's lack of response. She didn't feel like talking to this moron and so started to head for the nearest vacant table so she could eat, only to find that Colonel Kessler followed her.

"You know, you're always welcome to join SG-5," Kessler said, smiling as he had been since he had started talking to her, "we're much more open than SG-1."  
Katelyn had already made up her mind when faced with this suggestion. She certainly didn't want to go through all the paperwork required to make a switch of teams and besides, she didn't want to serve over this smiling moron.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Katelyn replied bluntly, turning around so she looked straight into Kessler's eyes, "so how about you just leave me alone and sit back down with your friends over there?" She nodded towards the table across the room where the rest of SG-5 was seated, the three other team members talking amongst themselves while occasionally glancing over at Colonel Kessler.

"Really? Why not?" Kessler frowned, only a little surprised at her response. Obviously he had been thinking that she would be all the more willing to leave SG-1 and join SG-5.

"For one thing, my stint with SG-1 is temporary," she replied, "for another, once it's over I'm going to get my own team. If you stuff up big-time I might even end up taking your place." She smiled at the uncertain look Kessler gave her, as if he didn't like what he was hearing.

However, before the conversation could continue any longer the base's PA system crackled into life. General Hammond's stern, authoritative voice broke in over the speakers throughout the base. He sounded as serious and business-minded as always but Katelyn detected a much somewhat more worried edge to his voice, as if something was worrying him. Usually when something worried General Hammond it gave everybody else good reason to be worried themselves.

"_Attention all personnel: I would like all members of SG-1 to meet me in the briefing room for an important meeting. I have men here that would like to speak with all four of you. I repeat…"  
_Hammond repeated the message once more before finishing it. Katelyn didn't like the extra concern the General's voice had when he mentioned the men that would like to speak with the team members but she couldn't exactly not show up. That would be stupid and disobeying a request from a superior.

"Sounds serious," Kessler said, smiling again, "you should go, see what it's about."

"I will," Katelyn replied bluntly, taking her bowl of cereal and dumping the contents of it into a nearby bin. It definitely looked like she wouldn't get much of a chance to eat for a little while longer and hoped that this "meeting" didn't take too long. She headed out of the cafeteria, leaving the annoying Colonel Kessler behind.

She started on her way to the elevator again, entering it and riding it down to sublevel twenty-seven where the briefing room was located. Once the elevator doors were open she became immediately aware of the mysterious looking soldiers in the grey uniforms who were standing guard by the entrance into the briefing room. They reminded her of the dead soldiers they had found in the SDIOA outpost back on P5H-734 and she immediately realized that something rather important was about to occur. Already she could hear Colonel O'Neill's arguing vice from inside the briefing room and he didn't sound too happy. Whatever was going on sounded serious enough and so, already quite curious, Katelyn headed into the room, surprised to find that the rest of the team was already there. Obviously she was the late one. Sitting down in a vacant seat she took notice of the man in the General's uniform standing near where Hammond was seated, realizing that he wasn't a common visitor here. In fact, he was quite the newcomer.

* * *

"Come on sir, you can't seriously be allowing this!" Colonel Jack O'Neill was quite annoyed at these recent developments since he knew that they had now jeopardized the proposed rescue mission back to P5H-734. Form the presence of these new arrivals in the grey uniforms to the arrival of some important looking General who was now standing next to Hammond, Jack realized that all their proposed plans were now in serious trouble. They couldn't just leave Daniel on that planet; he had already been there for long enough!

Hammond looked resigned to the new arrival's demands and from what Jack had heard of them they weren't particularly good demands. The General standing close to where Hammond was seated looked a little younger than the bald-headed General. This new arrival had greying, close cropped hair and light blue eyes that seemed a tad glassy, as if his mind was on other things.

"Colonel, may I remind you that you're close to insubordination if you keep going this way…" Hammond sounded serious and resigned to whatever had happened. Jack hadn't heard the full story of what was actually going on but he did know that these new arrivals wished control of the SGC from Hammond for some scheme of theirs. He wasn't about to simply sit idly by and let it happen. Someone had to stand up and try and prevent this travesty from occurring. Of course, he was mostly alone in his complaints seeing as Carter and Teal'c didn't seem too willing to protest. Teal'c he could understand, seeing as the warrior never said much but Carter? She should at least be saying something…

At this moment Katelyn walked in and seated herself next to him, looking a little bemused towards what was going on. She would find out soon enough though and perhaps might even give Jack some backup in his protests.

He knew he shouldn't be overreacting this way but something was about to happen that would prevent any rescue attempts to get Daniel back from P5H-734 from occurring. He couldn't allow that since it would mean that Daniel would be stuck there for God-only-knew how long. He was at the mercy of a ruthless and advanced enemy, one that was lead by some lunatic pyromaniac.

"But you can't let this happen!" Jack exclaimed, exasperated. It was obvious that Hammond wasn't in much of a position to argue and was doing his best to quell Jack's protests in order to appease the new arrivals. Still, Jack wasn't about to go down quietly. He prided himself on the fact that he never did.

"What about Daniel?" Jack pressed his point further. "He's still back there, captured by those high-tech psychos. They could kill him! We can't let that happen!"  
"What's going on?" Katelyn asked, finding that everybody in the room turned to look at her. This question gave Hammond a chance to explain the situation a little more for the team's benefit. Of course, what was going to happen wasn't for anybody's benefit save for the new arrivals.

"General Gregory Robards was sent here by the SDIOA to temporarily take control of the SGC," Hammond said, an edge to his vice that suggested that he disliked this idea immensely. Of course, he wasn't about to voice it when the General in question was standing right next to him.

"The SDIOA, which is short for the 'Special Defence Initiatives and Operations Agency', is a secretive branch of the NID. They specialize in the protection of this country and its interests. General Robards has full security clearance and so do his men that arrived here with him…"

"What General Hammond is trying to say," General Robards said, interrupting Hammond and stepping forward so the full attention of SG-1 was trained on him, "is that, for a temporary period, I and the SDIOA will be calling the shots. I know it may not appeal to you but I assure each and every one of you that I and my associates will ensure that problems encountered in your recent mission to P5H-734 will be addressed as soon as possible…"

"And how do you intend on doing that?" This was Carter, speaking up for the first time in the briefing. Robards looked at her carefully, as if he found something peculiar about her. Regardless he went on to answer her question.

"I would like to hear, from each of you in turn, what occurred in your recent mission to the planet designated 'P5H-734'. So far my men have obtained the advanced rifle and ID cards you recovered from the bodies of the enemy you encountered there. However, I wish to know the full extent of this enemy and the equipment they are using."

All of a sudden, things began to make sense. Jack knew it and so did Carter, Teal'c, Katelyn and Hammond. As soon as Robards had mentioned the SDIOA things had started to fall into place, made even clearer by the fact that he intended to take over the base for the duration of the P5H-734 operation. However, that would mean that Daniel's rescue might have to wait and Jack wasn't about to let that happen.

"You're doing this because your people were there," Katelyn said, Robards shifting his gaze to her, "we found an SDIOA outpost on that planet. No wonder you want to oversee the operation concerning that planet: you want to ensure that no one outside your organization discovers what you're people were doing on that planet…"

Robards shifted where he stood, as if this statement had made him only a little uncomfortable. Jack realized that Katelyn was onto something, something that made perfect sense. It seemed convenient that these guys show up now, only hours after SG-1's returns from the planet. It was as if they knew, or had been told, by someone in the base. That implied that this organization went much deeper than it first seemed. Hell, things were beginning to get quite interesting.

"And now you're operation's in jeopardy because of this new 'enemy' who seem to have gone about killing your people on that planet," Katelyn continued, further adding to General Robards' uneasiness. "You want us to tell you about this enemy so that you can get rid of them. At least, that's what I think…"

"Lieutenant, you're speaking out of line," Robards said bluntly, "and I can easily get you kicked out of this program just as easily as your father put you in it…"  
Katelyn seemed to fall silent when she heard this. Whoever this General Robards was, he must have been pretty important to know about that sort of stuff and have that sort of power. Jack didn't like the way these SDIOA guys seemed to think they could push around the people in the stargate program, having simply waltzed in here and making all sorts of demands.

"Why were your people on that planet?" Jack asked, "And for starters, how did you even get there without anyone here knowing about it?"

Robards took a moment to answer and Jack had the feeling about the answer that was coming.

"All that just happens to be classified," Robards replied bluntly. Jack raised an eyebrow, realizing just how improbable this was. Classified? Yet Jack and the rest of the team just happened to be in one of the most classified operations in existence? Didn't this mean they had the highest security clearance available?

"With all due respect, General, all of us here have the highest security clearance…" Carter had begun to make a good point but unsurprisingly the stern General Robards interrupted her, giving her a cold look.

"Obviously you're security clearance isn't high enough," Robards said. Jack was beginning to get annoyed at this interloping General, a General who seemed quite up himself when it came to security clearance. He couldn't just barge in here and expect everyone to give into his demands? Jack hated people like that.

"Just in case you failed to notice, General, you want to take over an operation that I and the team were involved in. That means you should at least be able to tell us something about what's going on…"

Robards smiled. It was the type of smile Jack didn't particularly like but he didn't say anything, instead letting the General speak. The Colonel managed to exchange looks with Carter: it seemed that this meeting just kept on getting more and more interesting.

"Well, for starters Colonel, I want to know some more abut this 'enemy' you encountered," Robards said, "that's why I've gathered your team here now. I want you to give me as much information as you can about what happened on that planet, starting with what you discovered when it comes to this 'enemy'."

There was a brief silence as the team thought this over. None of them were particularly willing to start and none knew where to start. However, Teal'c eventually spoke up in his usual blunt manner.

"They appeared to be sufficiently more advanced than us," he said, "they wore near impenetrable armour but were not impervious to Goa'uld weaponry such as a staff weapon or zat'ni'katel."

Robards nodded but he didn't look satisfied with the answer. He wanted more, Jack could tell by the frustrated look that crossed his face.

"I can tell that this will take a while," Robards said, glancing at the watch he was wearing around his left wrist, "how about you all go off and write a fully detailed report on your mission to the planet and hand them into me? Time is short, however, which is why I called this meeting. This enemy may be planning to leave the planet which is why we must act fast…"  
"General, how about you tell us why you're organization had a base there and why? And don't give me that classified crap, either." Jack asked, deciding to press these questions again. General Robards would have to tell all eventually although judging by the look on his face that time didn't seem to be now.

"I told you, I can't," Robards said, unsurprisingly.

Carter was the one to speak next, sounding a little uncertain as to why they were hearing. Jack could tell that she thought that there was something far more fishy going on here; the doubt came across in her voice.

"How come you need our help, sir? Certainly you should have known the risks involved when setting up a base on another planet?" Carter looked towards the General expectantly, waiting for an answer. "This enemy…they seemed to be systematically going through your outposts there and wiping them out. Their intentions to remove your organization from the planet were made quite obvious…"

Robards frowned, obviously not at all pleased with the amount of questions being thrown at him. Katelyn was the next to talk, throwing yet more questions at the annoyed looking General.

"Sir, you said you took the advanced rifle I found. Then you must have all the other items that were found as well, including the few armour plates we recovered and the IDs we found on a few of the dead armoured soldiers…"

"My technicians are currently researching those items," Robards said, "and so far, looking up the names on those IDs you found has come up with nothing. It's as if those people don't exist…"

Jack raised an eyebrow, exchanging looks with Carter again. Those IDs looked legitimate: how come none of the people on them didn't officially "exist"? Unless, of course, Robards was hiding something. In fact, Jack was quite certain that Robards was hiding a lot of facts from them. He just wanted any information they had on this new enemy for his own ends, whatever those ends were. Jack didn't bother trying to press anymore questions onto the General though seeing as it was obvious that he wouldn't be giving up any information.

"I understand you lost a team member to the enemy?" Robards asked. Jack looked towards him, able to tell from the General's tone of voice that he didn't care much for their loss of a team member. He was probably trying to sound sympathetic although it wasn't quite working.

"Yeah, a good one at that," Jack replied, "why?"

"I'm afraid any rescue mission is out of the question while I'm in charge," Robards replied bluntly, "Daniel Jackson is to be considered a casualty."

Jack couldn't help but sit up when he heard this. Now he was getting really annoyed, realizing just what this meant. The longer they left this rescue mission the more likely that Daniel would be killed. The Colonel shot a look at General Hammond but it was obvious that Hammond could do little about it, having been effectively removed from command for the time being. It was probably just temporary, something that Robards had been made clear, but it was a temporary time too long.

"Daniel's still back there and last time I saw him he was well and alive," Jack said, unable to keep the anger out of his voice, "and now, just because you and your goons arrive to take over we can't go back and get him?" Jack looked towards Robards, not too concerned that he was bordering on insubordination. Robards didn't look at all ruffled, as if he had been expecting this sort of reaction.

"Sir, you can't let him do this!" Jack stood up, shifting his gaze to Hammond, "he's taking over the base! Can't you see that he's got some sort of hidden agenda to top it all off?"

Hammond frowned, not answering immediately. Jack could tell the old General agreed but he wasn't in a position to voice this agreement out loud.

"Sit down Colonel," he said sternly, "Robards' arrangement is only temporary. Once he's done what he wants I will make sure a rescue mission to recover Daniel Jackson is organized. Right now though, I'm afraid you'll have to follow Robards' orders and not mine…"

Robards smiled again and Jack glared at him. The Colonel could tell that General Robards was hiding all sorts of information but he knew it was futile to say anything about it. Instead, he sat back down in his chair looking defeated, avoiding eye contact with the egotistic General Robards.

"First of all, time is short as I have mentioned earlier. I have already organized a team of my own men to journey to P5H-734 for standard reconnaissance. As well as this, I want a report from each of you delivered to me by eleven hundred hours. Seeing as a simple meeting such as this isn't an efficient enough means of gathering information on the new enemy it looks that I will have to settle for reading reports. I'm sure all of them will be quite interesting, mind you." Robards explained all of this once he was certain that no more protests would come from the team members seated at the table in front of him. He seemed quite pleased that business could be gotten to right away and didn't seem to care much for the few discontented team members seated ahead of him.

"Once the reconnaissance team has returned with some valid information and I have read each of your reports I will decide on what to do," Robards said, "however, I already have a few plans in mind. Once the business on P5H-734 is taken care of I and my men will leave, allowing you all to return to business as usual. My command here is merely a temporary arrangement. Hammond will assist where necessary but I'm afraid all SG teams are not needed."  
He turned to Hammond, satisfied that he had gotten his message across. Jack didn't like this whole plan, especially since it occurred to him that Robards and his goons had simply rocked up to cover up their operation on P5H-734 and ensure no one else found out about it. The Colonel could tell that Carter, Katelyn and Teal'c were thinking along the same lines.

"Hammond, notify the base's personnel of this temporary setup," Robards said, "just leave out why we're here. We don't need everybody to find out about our base on that faraway planet, do we?"

Hammond didn't look particularly eager to do this but reluctantly rose out of his chair anyway. He entered his office nearby and began making the necessary announcements throughout the base to alert everyone else about the temporary change of command.

Robards smiled towards SG-1, looking at each of them in turn. He noticed Jack's disgruntled look and simply smiled at him, as if to show he wasn't all that bad after all.

"Well, I'm sure this is the start of an interesting business relationship between the SGC and SDIOA," Robards said, "perhaps one day we may actually need you as a team. This time around, though, I'm afraid I brought my own men along for the off-planet trips. SG-1 is not needed."

"You know what?" Jack stood up, trying his best to ignore Robards' annoying smile. He looked towards the three others in the team, nodding towards the door.

"I'm hungry," he said bluntly, eager to leave Robards and this room behind, "who wants to come down with me to the cafeteria and have breakfast?"

Robards watched carefully as the Jack, Katelyn, Carter and Teal'c filed out of the room, all of them perhaps a little annoyed at the meeting that had just occurred. Robards had the distinct feeling that they wouldn't bother to write the reports he had requested, except maybe for Carter and Teal'c. It wasn't his fault they had stumbled upon a secretive SDIOA operation but it was his responsibility that they remained in the dark about its purposes. Not only were their greater things at stake but a new enemy had recently shown itself, an enemy that was as mysterious as it was efficient, having moved from world to world via the stargates while systematically eliminating any SDIOA personnel they found.

Robards tightened his tie and turned his gaze through the windows on his right which looked out into the gate room. The room was empty of people but the stargate stood tall and proud, kept in pristine clean condition by hard-working maintenance staff. Robards plans were both for the benefit of the SDIOA and for himself: one day he hoped to command this place so that the will of the organization would be easily spread to other worlds and other peoples. Until then, he would have to wait.

* * *

Outside in the corridor, once the four were far from the earshot of the shifty General Robards, the team known as SG-1 stopped and Carter was the first to speak.

"I don't trust Robards," she said bluntly.

Jack nodded in agreement, able to quite easily find a lot to distrust about Robards.

"Neither do I," he replied.

"Nor me," Katelyn added.

The three looked towards Teal'c, expecting an answer.

"There is much to distrust about General Robards," he said after a few seconds wait.

There was a pause before Jack voiced his own idea about what they should do.

"If Robards takes too long to make his decision about what to do, I'm going to head back to that planet myself. Daniel's still there and chances are he's still alive. You guys can come along, but I'll understand if you won't…"

"I will accompany you, O'Neill," Teal'c said, a rather unsurprising response from him. Jack was serious with his plan to go on a trip back to P5H-734 through the stargate, even if he wasn't allowed to do so. He had used the stargate without permission before so the risks involved weren't new to him.

"So will I, sir" Carter said, "I think that the only way we're going to get to the bottom of all of this is to head back to P5H-734 ourselves. Robards is just here to cover up his organization's operation there anyway."

The others nodded in agreement. Katelyn finally came to her decision about whether or not she would be joining the team in an unpermitted off-world trip.

"I'll come with you guys as well," she said, "nothing better to do, anyway."

With their decisions made all they had to do was wait for the right time and plan accordingly. Three of the four had done it before, the other could figure out what to do quite easily. Until then, they would have to put up with Robards' command. It was obvious that Hammond had been forced into stepping down temporarily: no doubt that threats had been made. With these thoughts the team headed to the nearest elevator, quite eager to get started on breakfast.


	18. Discussion

**Chapter Sixteen: Discussion**

**Location:** P5H-734

Half an hour had passed since Daniel's arrival in the meeting room in the underground complex within a mountain on P5H-734. For that time he had been seated in one of the semi-comfortable vinyl swivel chairs, left to ponder the thoughts in his head while Lukas Farber, one of the more important soldiers in Roland Halverson's militia, stood guard by the door.

Daniel was still attempting to determine the whole purpose of this facility, save for the fact that it was an obvious hub for operations involving the planet's secondary stargate to be conducted from. Daniel had figured that the stargate out in the clearing which he and the rest of SG-1 had arrived through had been brought here by the Goa'uld thousands of years ago. The one in this underground base was probably the original stargate to have been placed on this planet by those who had built it millions of years ago.

It occurred to Daniel that Roland Halverson's militia had used the stargate in this base to arrive on this planet and carry out their anti-SDIOA operation, an assumption which would explain why Halverson's troops were more centred around this base than around the stargate out in the clearing. Of course, this was all just speculation and Daniel was not to know for sure. It surprised him just how much of what he thought about what was happening on this planet between Halverson's forces and the SDIOA was in fact his own speculations. There were barely any cemented and solid facts about anything here, just guesses. Hopefully Roland Halverson himself would be able to provide some answers, seeing as he was coming to see the archaeologist soon enough.

Lukas stood by the door, looking bored but attentive at the same time. He was probably expecting Daniel to try and escape, something which had crossed the archaeologist's mind several times but had lead to no decisive action from him. Lukas' expectations would go completely unfounded.

Daniel's captors had cared enough about him to supply him with some clean water during his wait, a glass of which he had just finished off. He had taken the last half an hour to try and think some more things over but realized that he still had next to no idea about what was going on, a fact which was only just beginning to get on his nerves. Usually he had some idea of what he was caught up in but this time around he had been left mostly in the dark, having no clue as to what the true purpose of this base was and Roland Halverson's interests in the planet. Obviously he was here to get rid of the SDIOA, whatever that organization was, and he seemed pleased at Daniel's capture. He even knew who Daniel was, something which just brought up more questions in the archaeologist's mind than answers. Too many things still didn't make sense and before Daniel even thought of escaping he would try and get some answers. At least, he was hoping Roland would provide him with some. There was no guarantee in that.

Daniel set down his empty glass of water, glancing around the room again and towards the standard clock set in the wall. Of course, the clock itself wasn't much good in measuring a fourteen hour day on P5H-734 but it had obviously been used by whoever had run this base previously. An organized operation had been going on in this base until Roland and his gun-toting high-tech soldiers had showed up.

_Well, no doubt Jack's organizing some sort of rescue_. Daniel was rather certain that Jack O'Neill would be back for him, even if their friendship could be strained at times. Jack never liked leaving anyone behind and was probably organizing something right now to rescue him, all Daniel had to do was wait and hope that the rescuers wouldn't end up killed as a result.

Before Daniel could speculate any further on the thoughts running through his mind the door that Lukas Farber was standing guard by opened, revealing a familiar figure in futuristic looking officer's gear. He was wearing some sort of armour vest on top which also had bulky shoulder pads to go with it, giving him an imposing and authoritative look. The figure in question was Roland Halverson, looking no different than he had been when he had first introduced himself to Daniel back out in the clearing after the archaeologist's capture. He smiled when he saw Daniel and then turned to Lukas.

"Lukas, do you mind leaving?" He asked kindly, "I would like to discuss a few things with Dr. Jackson in private."

Lukas nodded, obeying his superior's request by leaving the room and closing the brown wooden door behind him. Once he was gone Roland turned towards Daniel, revealing that he was holding a small green canvas bag which no doubt contained items that had been confiscated off of the archaeologist. He set the bag down on the table and took a seat across from the archaeologist, all the while keeping that same smile on his face. Daniel found it oddly unnerving. In actual fact, Daniel was quite certain that this man was unstable. At least, he seemed the type who had some sort of problem with his mind.

Daniel noticed the dark leather gloves Roland wore, a little observation that suitably piqued his curiosity but not enough to warrant an inquiry as to why Roland always wore them. There was probably a good reason, either that or Roland just liked wearing gloves.

"Here are the items my soldiers confiscated from you," Roland said, getting straight to business as he unfolded the canvas bag and laid out all the items on the table. Daniel recognized all of them as items he had once been carrying up until his capture. These items included a Beretta pistol, some MREs and a GDO. However, he wasn't too sure why Roland was so interested in them. It was soon clear why, however, when Roland picked out one in particular.

"And, for starters, we have the GDO," he said, holding up the aforementioned device. Daniel had a feeling what was coming and was quite prepared to guard what he knew from this man. Problem was, he wasn't really used to the more harsher interrogation techniques.

"I just wanted to let you know, Dr. Jackson, that there's been a change of plan concerning this device," Roland said, looking thoughtfully at the GDO while using one hand to scrape some dirt off of the device. Daniel raised an eyebrow, not too sure about what Roland was getting at.

"I won't be needing the iris codes off of you, so you don't need to worry about getting tortured or whatever," Roland continued, putting the device down and returning his gaze towards Daniel, "Instead, one of my technicians has already devised an excellent way to get past the iris." He paused, as if expecting Daniel to say something. He frowned when Daniel remained silent, surprised at his mute reaction. He composed himself however and continued.

Daniel wasn't sure about what Roland was planning to do in regards to the GDO and the iris but it was obvious that something quite big was planned. If Roland's forces had some means of getting past the iris without the GDO codes then they must have been pretty advanced, how much though was unknown to the archaeologist.

"I intend to warn the people of the SGC that coming to this planet wouldn't be in their best interests," Roland said casually.

Daniel finally spoke, unable to not be just a little bit curious as to what this man was planning. He had all the obvious properties of a conniving schemer, one who seemed rather manipulative.

"And why do you want me?" Daniel asked, frowning, "how could I be of any use to you?"

Roland smiled again, something which he seemed to have a habit of doing. Daniel was unamused though, feeling quite unnerved by this man and the mystery behind him. The archaeologist intended to find out more about him though.

"I want to talk to you!" Roland exclaimed suddenly, "that's why I brought you here, down into the centre of my operations on this world. It used to belong to the SDIOA but unfortunately for them I and my troops have taken up residence here for now. Hopefully they won't bother us for a while since I have some urgent matters to attend to." He trailed off, as if his mind was on something else.

"You seem to know me," Daniel said, deciding that his best option was to play along with Roland for a while and hopefully get some valuable details out of him. It was obvious Roland liked Daniel for some reason, a fact that the archaeologist knew he could use to his advantage.

"I know all about you, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, "as well as certain other things to do with you, such as your team and where they're from. You are a once disgraced Egyptologist who had devised all sorts of wacky theories to do with ancient Egypt. Funnily enough, your theories were correct. You know, the ones about aliens building the pyramids as landing platforms for their ships…"

"So I'm guessing you know all about the Goa'uld?" Daniel asked, "And the stargates?"

"The Goa'uld are indirectly one reason why I'm here," Roland replied, sounding genuine enough. He also seemed rather friendly although Daniel had the thought that perhaps this was all just an act to loosen him up a little. Maybe it was because if so he was beginning to fall right into it. Regardless of all the misgivings he had about this man, Roland Halverson did seem to provide some relief after all the dangerous situations Daniel had been through earlier in the fourteen hour day on this world.

"This base was in fact built upon a Goa'uld facility, one that hasn't seen use for over a thousand years," Roland said, "and, according to my research, it seems that the Goa'uld facility was in fact built in a series of naquadah mines set up by the Goa'uld after something rather important was discovered."  
Daniel frowned upon hearing this, figuring that it did make sense. Perhaps the Goa'uld, while using the people they had brought to this world as slaves to work in the naquadah mines, had in turn made a discovery that would have been enough to build a facility around. Daniel sat and listened to what Roland had to say, intrigued at these developments.

"The important discovery in question was made at the last possible moment by the forces of Khnum, the System Lord who once ruled this world and the rest of this system, as well as several others," Roland explained, "I'm sure you've heard of Khnum?"

Daniel nodded, remembering this name from the leader of the nearby local town. The leader there, Cawama, had spoken of the Goa'uld who had brought his people from Earth and to this world to work in the naquadah mines. It was an all too common history for these human cultures that had been scattered throughout the galaxy, most of them having been used as slaves at one point in history.

"He's the Egyptian God of the source of the Nile," Daniel said, "and God of pottery. Depends on which part of Ancient Egypt you were from. The uh…the locals, they said he left about a thousand years ago. Since you seem to know so much, perhaps you know why he left this world?"  
Roland nodded, unsurprised at Daniel's knowledge of the mythology behind Khnum. Daniel was, after all, an Egyptologist.

Daniel, on the other hand, was merely playing along with Roland's discussion in order to get more details out of him. Since he seemed so willing to talk about it then there was plenty of reason for Daniel to take advantage of this, simply deciding to do this in a subtle manner and not make it blatantly clear that he was milking Roland of information.

"Dr. Jackson, I've always respected your wealth of knowledge," Roland said. He chuckled at the surprised glance the archaeologist gave but he continued talking before Daniel could respond.

"Khnum left here because Ra put a price on his head since Khnum had tried to kill him," Roland explained, "and, of course, you know Ra?"

"Yes, yes I do…" Daniel remembered all too well the first mission to Abydos and his encounter with Ra, the Goa'uld posing as the Egyptian sun god. Fortunately Ra was dead, blown to smithereens by a nuke that had gone off in his face. At least he was one intergalactic villain that Daniel could be sure was dead.

"Quite a piece of work you managed when you blew him up," Roland said, "but, as I was saying, Khnum had tried to remove Ra from power. It failed and understandably Ra was quite pissed, bringing the combined might of the System Lords down onto Khnum. This happened about a thousand years ago and this was why Khnum had his forces depart this planet, going on the run instead. No one is quite sure what happened to him although evidence suggests that he's dead, having been out of galactic politics for some time…"

"Hang on," Daniel said, realizing some things that had been mentioned by Roland still didn't add up. Sure, his abridged history of Khnum made sense but the way he was saying it…It sounded like he knew all about it. How could he possibly know all of this?

"You talk about this as if it's common knowledge," Daniel said, perplexed, "how could you possibly know all of this?"

Roland shrugged, smiling again.

"I have my sources, Dr. Jackson. Anyway, as I was saying, Khnum went on the run and abandoned this world altogether. He left behind one of the greatest discoveries ever made, having been only metres short of stumbling upon the hidden chamber in which it was being kept.

"The discovery I speak of is of a device, perhaps made by those who created the stargates. This device is currently blocked by an impenetrable force field which is why I and my soldiers have been on this planet for the last week. It's taking some time to figure out a way to get past the force field but I'm fairly certain that we're close to finding a way through."  
Daniel listened, realizing that he knew absolutely nothing about this device that Roland was referring to. Obviously was important enough to warrant an operation like the one he had going now.

"Just what is this device? What does it do?" Daniel wasn't expecting an answer to these questions and was unsurprised when Roland simply laughed again; shaking his head at what he thought was the archaeologist's ignorance to the topic of conversation.

"If I told you that there would be no fun in demonstrating it to you when I finally get it," Roland said, "and yes, I do want to show you it. That's why I brought you here, since you are an archaeologist. Buried relics are the sort of thing that are right up your alley, excuse the cliché." He noticed Daniel's uncertain grimace at what he was proposing.

"Don't worry, you'll have much more use to us in the meantime," Roland continued, "since there's a whole stack of ancient tablets that need translating and you're the best person here to do it. I would do it myself, but I'm a busy man…"

"What? You can understand Goa'uld?" Daniel couldn't believe what he was hearing. How the hell could this man know so much? It was even harder to believe that he was making this all up, especially since he seemed so damn serious about it when he spoke.

"Not just Goa'uld but also the language of the Ancients, the builders of the stargates," Roland replied before adding, somewhat modestly, "well, I'm not fluent at it but I can get the gist of what I'm reading. Same sort of deal with you, am I correct?"

Daniel nodded, incredulous to what was being implied. Who was Roland Halverson? What did he do and how could he possibly know two alien languages? Even Daniel had difficulty with the language of the Ancients, having only first gotten started on it a few months earlier when Jack had accidentally had a repository of Ancient knowledge downloaded into his brain.

"Don't look so surprised, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, "I'm a man of many trades and linguistics just happens to be one of them. Of course, such abilities in languages are almost necessary from where I come from."

"And where, might I add, are you from?" Daniel asked, his eyes meeting Roland's. There was a noticeable hesitation in the man, as if this question had been the one he had been expecting but not quite willing to answer. He cleared his throat while Daniel came to the realization that he had stumbled upon something quite interesting. Wherever this man was from was definitely a place Daniel was interested in visiting, especially since he seemed to talk to Daniel as if he…_he knew him_. But how? The possibility that entered Daniel's mind was almost too hard to believe but the thing that worried him about it was that a whole lot more stuff here would make sense if this possibility was in fact what had happened.

"I'm from a place far away but surprisingly near," Roland replied cryptically, "and that's all you'll need to know. I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself, Dr. Jackson, but let's not discuss it anymore than we should. In fact, how about we get started on why your team came to this planet?" He paused, waiting for a response. Daniel was still thinking things over when it came to this cryptic leader of this faction of high-tech soldiers.

"Go ahead, Dr. Jackson," Roland said expectantly, "I'm interested. Why did SG-1 venture to this world? Was it to do with the other team, SG…SG…It's at the back of my mind, I can't remember…" Roland frowned, trying to remember the exact designation of the team that SG-1 had been sent to rescue. Daniel helped him with this little fact.

"SG-8?"

"Yes, SG-8," Roland said, "I'm supposing that you and the rest of SG-1 came here to rescue SG-8?"  
Daniel was beginning to find it hard to think with all the things that were running through his mind. So many unanswered questions, it was as if with each answered question a whole lot more unanswered ones cropped up in its place.

"Why did you kill SG-8?" Daniel asked bluntly, not at all interested in the niceties anymore. The question received a surprised look from Roland, again another question he hadn't been quite expecting.

"I ordered my soldiers to take at least one of them alive," Roland said, "At the time I found their arrival to be an unwanted nuisance. However, one of my best but less disciplined troops, a young woman by the name Sarah Taylor, found it difficult to follow my orders and so killed all four members of SG-8. She's a troubled lady, I must say…"

Daniel raised an eyebrow, not too certain about whether that this man was telling the truth or not. If SG-8's death was because of one of his less disciplined soldiers then there was no telling about what might happen to Daniel himself.

"So, just because of this one person all of SG-8 is dead?" Daniel was definitely unsure of the truth in this but Roland seemed genuine enough in the discussion.

Roland nodded in response, looking rather serious about it. If he was lying he was doing a good job of it.

"Yes, and don't worry Dr. Jackson, I won't let the same happen to you," Roland said, as if sensing the archaeologist's unease, "you're in good hands with me. I've told my soldiers that you're not a threat to us and they won't shoot you or anything, unless you try to escape…I'm sure you won't do that, am I correct?"

"Ah…" Daniel wasn't sure what to say. Roland seemed the type who could figure out when someone was lying to him but it was obvious he was expecting an answer to this question.

"Yes?"

"No…" Daniel wasn't planning on escaping just yet; he still wanted more details off of Roland about what was going on here. He could tell that Roland sensed the uncertainty in his voice but if he had the feeling that the archaeologist was lying, he didn't show it.

"Good to hear, Dr. Jackson," Roland replied before continuing, "anything else you wish to discuss? I'm open to questions, as long as they're…"

"Where are you from?" Daniel decided to press this question forwards and noticed the immediate grimace on Roland's face. "And why do you have to be so cryptic in your responses?"

"I was going to say, as long as what you ask isn't about where I'm from," Roland said, "because if I told you, it would spoil the surprise when you find out yourself. You're a doctor, you work it out. You have the knowledge and I think I've already given you enough hints.

"About my cryptic answers, well, I just enjoy being like that, that's all," Roland said, smiling, "especially since I can tell that it's confusing you."

"And you enjoy that?" Daniel was beginning to get annoyed at the way nothing had really been found out in this conversation. He still had hardly any idea about what was going on and his question went unanswered.

"Dr. Jackson, you must be aware that another organization actually set up this facility and several others like it in the forest?" Roland asked and before Daniel could answer he continued, "well, you may be wondering who the organization is. They're called the SDIOA, which is really just short for 'Special Defence Initiatives and Operations Agency.'"

"Really?" Finally a piece of information Daniel could work with. It wasn't much but run it through a computer back at the SGC and something was bound to come up.

"They're a branch of the NID," Roland continued, "and I've come here to stop what they're doing. They're after what I'm after, which is the item buried in the ruins underneath this facility. If they get it there's no telling what might happen…"

"And what is the item?" Daniel had a feeling that once again Roland wouldn't tell him. He was right in making that assumption.

"Dr. Jackson, you're so full of questions," Roland said, "and I'm sure that many of them will be answered in due time. You obviously don't understand the gravity of the situation here…"

"And just what is the 'gravity' of the situation here?" Daniel found himself standing up and raising his voice, annoyed at the sheer lack of information. All of this talking and for what reason? Just so Roland could confuse the hell out of him?

"You seem so willing to answer my questions but then when I actually do ask one you give me some sort of cryptic answer," Daniel said, noticing that Roland was unfazed by his sudden determined outburst, "I think I'm just wasting my time here…why don't you just lock me up already?"

"Because, as I've said, you are of immense use to us during our operation here," Roland replied coolly, his casual demeanour completely unchanged by Daniel's reaction to the way he had been answering questions, "there are many tablets that need translating and you're the man for the job…"

"I'm just here so you can use me?" Daniel asked. He wasn't about to help this man until he started getting some proper answers. And why should he help? It seemed to him that Roland could handle translating these things himself if what he said about knowing the Goa'uld language was true.

"Well, I wouldn't be lying if I said that wasn't one reason why I kept you alive," Roland said, shrugging innocently, "but take this as an opportunity to work for a great organization such as ours. It could be the beginning of a wonderful business relationship…"

Daniel shook his head. Under no circumstances would he be helping this psycho in translating some ancient tablets. And why should he help him? It was obvious Roland had his own agenda here and it wasn't just to ensure the SDIOA didn't get a hold of the important item in the ancient ruins underneath the facility…There was more to it then that.

"I'm not helping you," Daniel said bluntly.

"Sorry?"

"I said I'm not helping you." Daniel could tell that this seemed to shake up Roland a little but whatever loss of composure was quickly fixed up, giving the impression that Roland wasn't surprised. He was, though.

"Until you change your mind, Dr. Jackson," Roland began, a hint of anger in his voice, "I'm going to confine you to one of the many vacant living quarters in this facility. I'm sure you'll come to your senses eventually." He tugged at his collar, as if it was bothering him, and then reached into a pocket and removed a small radio. It looked much more advanced than a standard transistor, further cementing Daniel's thought about the origin of Roland and his soldiers. It wasn't so far-fetched, seeing as Daniel and the rest of SG-1 had accidentally travelled back in time to 1969 a few weeks ago.

Roland called in Lukas Farber who in turn began escorting Daniel away. This gave Daniel a chance to think about the origin of Roland and his soldiers, quite incredulous about the possibility that Roland was from the future. It made sense, though.


	19. Nuke

**Chapter Seventeen: Nuke**

**Location: **Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado

Colonel Jack O'Neill did not trust General Gregory Robards, the very man that was currently in charge of the SGC. Not only that but several of his goons were wandering around, going about their operations here without having anything to do with ordinary SGC personnel. Robards had wanted reports on their mission to P5H-734 from the SG-1 team but as far as Jack could tell they were going to be for Robards' own use only and not for the benefit of the stargate program: hence Jack hadn't even got round to starting his. He didn't know about Carter, Teal'c or Katelyn but he wasn't about to cooperate with a General with his own agenda. Sure, it was disobeying orders but not writing a report just didn't seem like a big deal anyway.

Jack sat alone at a table in the cafeteria, thinking things through when it came to recent developments. He had the feeling that Robards wasn't about to waste his time with a rescue mission seeing as Daniel didn't mean much to him, not like he did to SG-1. It was frustrating to know that Robards had interfered with original plans to rescue Daniel and had effectively dumped them in favour for his own scheme but Jack had other ideas, one of which involved planning and executing a mission of his own: so far the team had decided that if Robards was planning to not rescue Daniel in the next twelve hours then the team would take it upon themselves to do it. They had done this sort of thing before, going through without permission save for Katelyn who was only new to this whole thing. She seemed willing enough to help since Daniel's capture was partly her fault anyway, although even Jack had dropped this idea in favour of keeping their slowly developing friendship intact. There was no use holding a grudge against someone when all they were doing was making sure you stayed alive, hence the reason why she had pushed him through the wormhole during that firefight while leaving Daniel behind. Nothing could have been done for him without the rescuer getting shot several times himself, although it still frustrated Jack to think that it had actually come to this. When was the last time one of their own in their team had been captured and been subsequently rescued?

Usually it was the whole team that was in jeopardy and not just one person. Well, _usually_…It seemed SG-1 had a habit of getting captured by the enemy, usually by the Goa'uld.

For the last half an hour Jack had been sitting by himself, doing his best to think up an approach for the rescue mission. If their assumptions were correct then P5H-734 had another stargate, one that was no doubt in the main SDIOA complex on the planet. If they could travel to a harmless world through the stargate and then overload it they could then dial for P5H-734 and have the wormhole jump to the secondary stargate, thus giving them the element of surprise. Of course, the exact physics involved were far beyond Jack's comprehension. Carter was the specialist in this sort of thing and she would know what to do when the time came to actually put this considered plan into action, if they ever got a chance.

Jack had finished his somewhat late breakfast, glancing at the digital watch he wore on his left wrist. It was almost ten o'clock in the morning and unsurprisingly he felt tired: he hadn't actually gotten much sleep since their return from P5H-734. Still, Daniel was out there and sleeping would only waste valuable time that they could be using to rescue him…If those high-tech psychopaths on that planet were anything like he had seen so far then Daniel might be at death's door by now. No doubt they were interrogating him for all that he knew of the stargate program and probably for the iris codes as well. At least, this was what Jack thought was happening…however, he couldn't be further from the truth.

Still the one who preferred some planning, however little it was, Jack had begun to think over their approach to the situation once they were on P5H-734. No doubt both stargates would be heavily guarded; it was just hard to determine which one would be guarded the most. And once they were past the stargate's defenders then what? They only had the loose indication that Daniel was at the main SDIOA complex within the mountain and nothing more: it would be illogical to think that they wouldn't move him or keep him under guard.

Whatever was happening Jack was sure it was nothing they couldn't handle: all they needed was some heavy firepower to take down any soldiers they had to. Katelyn was now on the task of procuring that equipment without arousing the suspicion of General Robards and his goons and so far had been doing a good job of it. Robards had made sure his men kept a close watch on the many armouries of the SGC, just in case anyone was planning a trip through the stargate without his permission. He obviously suspected Jack and the rest of SG-1 of planning something and he was quite right in that assumption, however he wouldn't be able to do much to stop them if it ever came time to leave. Carter was already working on a way to distract the guards from the gate room and control room seeing as she was the expert with the computer systems and stuff like it. Teal'c, meanwhile, was off in his quarters meditating which left Jack well and truly alone in the cafeteria with nothing but himself for company, hence the reason he had started to eat more than he should to pass the time away. Usually at this time he has getting ready for a mission through the stargate or writing a report. Now that Robards was in charge it seemed he had relegated all SG teams to doing nothing, that way they didn't interfere with his plans. Any teams currently off-world were allowed to return, they just met a surprise when Robards told them about the current differences to the SGC they had left.

Jack was just about to start on some toast when Katelyn walked into the cafeteria, dressed in the standard green uniform of SG personnel in the base. She saw him and walked over to his table, sitting in the seat across from him. She had that look about her, as if she was doing something she shouldn't. Well, procuring guns for the team's upcoming unauthorized mission through the stargate could be considered "something you shouldn't do" or at least not to get caught in doing.

Jack looked up, placing his piece of toast back on the plate in front of him and looking towards the Lieutenant, curious to hear of what she's managed to get. She had just as much clearance as he did so it was likely she met no trouble in getting the right equipment.

"So, Lieutenant, you get hold of anything noteworthy?" Jack wasn't expecting much though; it seemed the majority of arms that were kept in the base were ill-equipped for penetrating the advanced armour that those enemy soldiers back on P5H-734 were wearing. Staff weapons and zat'ni'katels would have been preferred but taking a whole lot of the few that were kept on base would simply arouse the suspicion of the people who kept track of the amount of guns that were kept in the base.

"Not really: I did get a few zat guns, but taking anymore than I have already is just going to get the suspicion of Robards' goons up," Katelyn replied.

Jack nodded: zat'ni'katels would be effective regardless of the armour the bad guys wore. However, he had been hoping for something a little more substantial but he knew that covertly removing guns from an armoury would be a difficult thing to do without getting caught.

"I think I'll be able to take some of the bigger stuff later on, though," Katelyn said, "I just need more time, that's all…"

Jack nodded, only half-listening. In fact, his mind was set on other things such as the untrustworthy Robards and just what the man's agenda was: He had his own plans for the SGC; there was no doubt about that. To top things off there was that nagging feeling at the back of his mind that all was not quite right with General Robards and there would certainly be something wrong with whatever scheme he cooked up. He obviously didn't care much about Daniel who was most likely still alive on P5H-734.

A brief silence fell upon the pair, Jack getting to work on eating some buttered toast while Katelyn looked down as she thought of what else to say. It was her chance now to apologize for what had happened during their escape but something told her that Jack didn't care much about it anymore.

"I'm sorry if I sort of ruined your plans back there," Katelyn said, apologizing properly for once, "you know, how I pushed you into the wormhole rather than let you go back and get Daniel…"

"Don't worry about it," Jack replied bluntly, no longer concerned about that. He had been stupid in the first place to get angry at her for what was actually a life-saving act and didn't see any reason to continue this way. Rather, it was best they just moved on from this little disagreement, that way they would work better together when it came to rescuing Daniel.

"I'm sorry for being pissed off at you," Jack said, looking towards the young Lieutenant with only a slight apologetic gaze. If she was apologizing then he would be kind enough to return the favour. Katelyn was a good looking woman, this Jack had to admit. However, he was quite certain that, just like with Carter, they would simply be friends. It was better that way, even if Katelyn would only be in SG-1 for three weeks.

"Well, we've both apologized," the Lieutenant said, "so we're even, I guess…" She smiled although Jack didn't return the favour, seeing as there was really no point. Jack wasn't someone who smiled very often, if not at all. Katelyn liked this about him: he was always the deadpan snarker who never cracked even the slightest grin.

"Yeah, you could say that," Jack said, finishing off his toast and sitting back in his seat.

"So, uh…" Katelyn tried to figure out what to say next, seeing as they had settled their little disagreement. There wasn't much else to talk about, at least to Jack who didn't seem to be too interested in what she had to say. Jack, on the other hand, was waiting for her to continue although it looked more like he had grown bored of the conversation already.

Jack was in fact bored, he was just curious to hear what Katelyn said next. He could tell that she liked him, all the little signs were there. Of course, she probably wasn't about to admit it to him. At least Jack could feel pleased with himself for being a bit of a ladies man, even though he was over forty years old.

"Maybe we could go out to town the next chance we get?" She asked finally, providing a question that Jack hadn't been quite expecting. "You know, get something to eat…"

Jack found himself raising an eyebrow, a little confused at the abruptness of the question and what it was implying. Katelyn was looking at him with an expectant face, waiting for an answer.

"In other words, a date?" Jack asked, noticing the Lieutenant shift in her seat. Fraternization was against regulations, for obvious reasons, so Jack wasn't about to play along. Sure, he liked the idea but he decided he would see what happened if he sort of went against her idea.

"It wouldn't be much of a date if the rest of SG-1 tagged along, wouldn't it?" He asked, "And they're all going to want to come along, we can't leave Sam behind…or Teal'c, I'm sure he'd want to come along…And Daniel, once we rescue him…"

"So, I take it you're not interested?" Katelyn frowned, sounding unsurprised. She had tried, obviously, but Jack would have to make it a little more clear to her that this sort of fraternization wasn't allowed when they were both in the military.

"I didn't say I wasn't interested," Jack said, "I just don't think the two of us can get away with a 'date', you know? Sam, Daniel, Teal'c…They would find out one way or another…That wouldn't be good if they did. In fact, it would be embarrassing. I don't like being embarrassed."

"So you are interested?" Katelyn's gaze lit up but only slightly. It was obvious she was hoping for him to agree to going out with her. Advances like this from women made Jack slightly uneasy but he did keep his composure.

"I didn't say I was," he said, before immediately adding, "but I didn't say I wasn't, either."

"Are you going to make a decision or are you going to leave me hanging for a while?" Katelyn was serious with the question, something that Jack took as a sign that she was serious in the entire matter. A date with a fellow team member? Definitely not something he had been expecting to be proposed to him but certainly not unwelcome here. It reminded him just how much of a ladies man he was. At least, in his opinion he was a ladies man. Still able to attract young pretty girls at his age was definitely a good sign.

"I'll decide when we get back from rescuing Daniel," Jack replied, unable to feel some satisfaction at the annoyed gaze that he received from the Lieutenant.

Katelyn stood up, annoyed at the outcome but retaining her composure. She looked down at the smug Jack, knowing full well he had said what he had on purpose. However, she couldn't bring herself to be too annoyed at him, something which Jack could see in the way she was looking at him.

"Well, I'll just have to wait for your decision until then, won't I?" She asked, a trace of annoyance in her voice. Jack shrugged, almost innocently.

"Yes, you will, Lieutenant," Jack replied quite bluntly. Katelyn was about to leave when a familiar sounding voice sounded on through the SGC's announcement system. It was a voice that neither Jack nor Katelyn had been expecting to hear again so soon and certainly a voice that weren't too keen on hearing again.

"_Attention all personnel: this is General Robards. I am issuing a temporary order to all non-SDIOA personnel to stay clear of the gate room, regardless of what business you may have there. If you have any questions as to why you may ask one of my aides after the order is cleared. An important operation is about to take place and interference from standard SGC personnel will not be taken lightly."_

Jack stood up as Robards repeated the message, immediately aware that General Robards was up to something. No such alert had ever been issued before: usually circumstances would be so dire that the entire base would either be locked down or evacuated depending n the type of situation. This sort of alert simply made it blatantly clear that Robards was planning something and that he didn't want any interference.

Jack prided himself on the fact that he was excellent at following the orders of his superiors, deciding immediately to disobey what Robards had just said and head on over to the control room. He looked at Katelyn, able to tell that she was thinking along the same lines.

"What the hell could that guy possibly be up to?" Jack asked, more to himself than anyone else. Katelyn still replied, though.

"I have the feeling it's not something we should be pleased with…"

Jack started towards the cafeteria's exit, Katelyn following closely behind. Whatever it was that Robards was about to do it probably wasn't something that deserved to go unnoticed. Maybe he was sending a team of his own through, something which was harmless enough. Of course, Jack had the feeling that he had already dumped this idea in favour of something much more straightforward…

"Do you really think we should interfere?" Katelyn asked, walking alongside Jack as he started towards the elevator.

"Of course we should interfere," Jack said as the pair arrived at an elevator. The door slid open only seconds later and a pair of technicians walked out, allowing Jack and Katelyn entrance. The Colonel slid his keycard into the appropriate slot on the panel, thus in turn allowing him to descend to sublevel twenty-seven, where the control room overlooked the gate room. The elevator doors closed and it began to descend, allowing the pair time to collect their thoughts.

"He wants us to stay out of his organization's business," Jack said, "He doesn't want us to interfere. In other words, he knows we won't like what he has planned. If he was sending a team through I doubt he would keep the rest of the people here out of the loop."

"You think he's doing something else?" Katelyn asked, although it was clear that this was the case.

"Yeah, I do," Jack replied just as the elevator came to a halt. The doors slid open, allowing the pair to exit and start towards the control room. However, at each entrance of the control room stood a pair of grey uniformed guards. Jack approached one pair and they made sure to step in his way, obviously with orders not to let any non-SDIOA people through. Katelyn stopped a short distance behind Jack, curious to see what happened next.

"I'm sorry Colonel, only SDIOA personnel are allowed into the control room and gate room," one of the guards calmly announced. Jack didn't take much notice of him, instead looking over the guard's shoulder and into the control room beyond. He could make out Robards standing behind a few seated technicians as they worked the controls of the dialling computer. The sounds of the stargate kicking into life with the familiar whirr of its inner ring moving and _shing-shing _sound of the chevrons locking caught Jack's attention. This implied that whatever Robards was doing it had something to do with P5H-734. Jack had no doubts in his mind as to what planet the stargate was being dialled to open a wormhole to.

Jack wasn't about to let a couple of guards in his way, especially since the life of a close friend could be at stake. Jack simply pushed on past the two guards with relative ease, knocking them aside as if they were mere chunks of Styrofoam. Katelyn followed him inside, just as determined to find out what Robards was doing as Jack was. There were no doubts in her mind that it wasn't Robards' original suggestion of sending a reconnaissance team through. This was made even more true when she and Jack managed a view from the control room's windows and down into the gate room.

The stargate was active, the shimmering white-blue light filling the briefing room and gate room as the wormhole at the ring's centre rippled like a pool of water. At the end of the ramp leading up into the mouth of the stargate were a few SDIOA technicians checking the readouts on a familiar looking device. The device in question was laid out upon a remote controlled cart, almost cylindrical in shape with a small display at the centre. No wonder Robards didn't want any interference: they were going to send a bomb through.

Of course, this sort of thing was unacceptable. Jack turned to General Robards who was just turning to face him, annoyed at the unwanted intrusion that Jack and Katelyn had provided.

"What the hell are you doing, General?" Jack asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. A bomb through to P5H-734 meant that not only Daniel would get killed but the rest of those innocent civilians who lived in the region close to the stargate. Obviously Robards hadn't bothered with a more suitable approach, deciding to go along the old mantra of "if it's a problem, blow it up!"

"Colonel!" Robards shot an annoyed glance his way before doing the same to Katelyn. "Lieutenant? What the hell are you two doing here? I specifically ordered non-SDIOA personnel to keep away from the gate room until I said otherwise…"

"Yeah, I know what you said General," Jack said, frowning, "you don't want us to know what you plan on doing. Sending a bomb through…are you nuts?"

Robards shook his head, as if he found Jack's argument silly. He obviously thought that this plan would be the most efficient means of getting rid of the new high-tech enemy on P5H-734. It would also result in the deaths of Daniel and the large native population in the region, a fact which said something of Robards' consideration for others on that world.

"It's not just any ordinary bomb," Robards said, somewhat proud f this, "it's a naquadah enriched bomb…Enough to multiply the explosive force by…"

"A hundred? Yeah, I've heard that before," Jack interrupted, not particularly interested in the details to do with the bomb. Instead, he decided to get to the point. Katelyn stood nearby, listening and occasionally glancing down into the gate room. The technicians at the bomb were waiting for Robards' go ahead and were yet to receive it, looking expectantly towards the General standing in the control room.

"Do you have any idea how many people you'll kill with that thing?" Jack asked, not expecting much of an answer, "not only will you kill Daniel, but you'll also kill a few hundred thousand local inhabitants…"

"A mere sidenote when it comes to the big picture," Robards said, unfazed by Jack's argument, "you obviously don't understand what I'm trying to do, Colonel. This enemy…they are after something we cannot allow them to get hold of. You may not know exactly what I'm referring to, but trust me, if they succeed in what they're doing on that planet…Well, there'll be plenty of changes, I can tell you that."

"And just what the hell are you talking about?" Jack asked, annoyed at the vagueness of what Robards was telling him. One of the technicians at the dialling computers shut down the stargate, preferring not to waste power anymore than necessary. The wormhole disappeared into nothing, leaving empty space within the mouth of the stargate.

"Our facilities on that planet must be considered lost to the enemy," Robards continued, ignoring Jack's question, "and our lost personnel there as casualties. Your friend Daniel's a casualty as well, just so you know. In order to destroy this enemy once and for all we must allow for others to die for the greater good…"

"You self-righteous son of a bitch," Jack said bluntly, angered at what he was hearing, "you're willing to commit an act of genocide just to get rid of those bad guys?"

"It's not genocide…"

"It's close enough to genocide," Jack said, "and I'm not going to let you do it."  
Katelyn raised an eyebrow when she heard this while Robards glared at him, anger showing up on his features. Jack seemed adamant in what he was saying, about to go one step further in order to stop Robards' scheme to send a naquadah enhanced bomb through.

"Colonel, I'll have you forcefully removed from the control room," Robards said, "that is, if you try anything."

"I'm not going to let you send a bomb through," Jack said, "besides, has Hammond agreed to this? I doubt he has…"

"I told Hammond to take the day off and he kindly obliged," Robards replied with a smug look, "he's not here to bother anyone for today, including me."

"Sir!" One of the technicians suddenly shouted, all eyes in the room shifting onto him.

"What is it?" Robards asked, a little annoyed at the interruption. Down in the gate room the stargate was whirring back into life, chevrons locking as someone began to dial in.

"It's an incoming wormhole, sir," the technician replied.

Robards sighed, obviously not in the mood for such an inconvenience.

"Close the iris," he ordered. The technician obliged and the iris of the stargate closed shut only seconds before the wormhole engaged, filling the back of the gate room behind the metal iris with that familiar blue-white rippling light.

"Uh, sir…"

"What?"

Jack and Katelyn watched on as blue streaks of what could have been electricity began to flow over the iris, as if someone was sending powerful electric charges through it. It was quite a surprise when the iris opened up, struggling to at first before unfolding from the centre and disappearing into the edges of the stargate.

"It's some sort of EMP wave," the technician said, typing away hurriedly at the dialling computer, "it disengaged the iris…"

"Then close it again!" Robards was getting angry now, hardly in the mod for another interruption such as this.

"I can't, sir!" The technician sounded worried now, "the controls aren't responding!"

"Then shut down the gate!"  
"I said the controls aren't responding! I can't shut it down!"

Robards sighed and walked over to the alarm panel on the nearby wall, pulling the small lever there which in turn sent an alarm sounding throughout the base. Jack and Katelyn watched on as soldiers flowed into the gate room, rifles raised as they took up defensive positions at the base of the ramp.

Whatever was happening, Jack was sure it would only hinder Robards' plans. If this was the case then perhaps there was hope for that rescue mission yet, although it worried him that an enemy could open the iris with some sort of EMP from their side of the wormhole. For now though, there was a few minutes of silence as whatever had dialled in took its time on passing through. It was a tense wait, Robards watching the wormhole carefully while the soldiers down in the gate room waited expectantly for something to come through.

"This whole operation keeps getting more and more interesting," Katelyn said, more to herself than to anyone else.


	20. Raid

**Chapter Eighteen: Raid**

**Location:** P5H-734

For the last hour or so Daniel Jackson had been confined to a set of bland and mostly beige living quarters, the actual colour scheme a step up from the grey interiors of the SGC. However, he was stuck with himself for company and barely anything to do and so had taken the chance to have some short rest before Roland dragged him off somewhere, something which Daniel was certain he would do. It seemed that Roland respected Daniel and hence wanted him to do some things for him, namely to translate ancient tablets. Of course, Daniel wasn't about to help someone who had been more or less responsible for the deaths of all four members of SG-8. Roland had assured him that he wasn't actually responsible for this but the man seemed like the conniving sort and so took everything he said with a grain of salt.

Daniel was still in the same dirty outfit he had been in when he had been captured. He had taken off the jacket though, especially since it was quite warm down in the underground base. However, he still felt dirty and somewhat grimy and knew that a wash was currently not an option. As much as he hated to admit it, he seemed to be a prisoner here. Two of Roland's soldiers stood outside the door, ensuring that he didn't try anything to escape. They did take requests for food and items, since Roland was still respectful enough of Daniel to not make him starve. Obviously Roland was still expecting Daniel to help him out and the thought had crossed the archaeologist's mind that maybe he could find out more about what was going on if he did accept the offer to help. Currently he only knew slightly more than the rest of SG-1, seeing as he had been "lucky" enough to have a lengthy conversation with Roland earlier.

Roland acted as if he knew Daniel well and seemed friendly enough towards him, as if they were old friend. Daniel, of course, didn't know Roland at all and found it hard to see a reason why Roland was so friendly. He was expecting Daniel to help, sure, but there was more to it than that. Daniel had made the assumption earlier that Roland and his soldiers were from the future, a theory not quite as outlandish as it sounded.

It made sense, especially since Daniel himself had been subjected to some time travel recently. He and the rest of SG-1 had been accidentally taken back to the year 1969 where they had had to find the stargate and use it at the appropriate time so a solar flare could knock the wormhole to the appropriate time. It wasn't outlandish to think that someone in the future had determined a way of predicting solar flares and had some sort of vast time travel operation going, it just made it hard to think that a bad guy (at least, Daniel assumed that they were the bad guys) like Roland would have access to a means of time travel. Why had Roland come back in time anyway? He said he was after something apparently buried underneath this facility, protected by impenetrable force fields. Whatever it was it must have been pretty darn important to deserve a time travel trip to come and get it.

The time travel theory made more and more sense when Daniel thought about it in depth. Roland acted as if he knew him which didn't mean he actually knew him but it implied that maybe sometime in the future they would meet. As well as this, the advanced weapons and technology they seemed to possess all pointed towards coming from a future time frame where technology had possessed some what. They still used radios and their guns still used bullets so perhaps it wasn't too far into the future. Whenever these guys came they must have had a very good reason to come back in time and take over this SDIOA base. The reasons behind why they had done it were unknown to Daniel but perhaps after another talk with Roland things would start to become clearer. That is, if Roland wanted to talk to him after his refusal to help out in the translations.

Right now Daniel was thinking these things over, sitting on the edge of the bed in the living quarters and taking note of how bad he was beginning to smell. It was a mixture of sweat and mud, not exactly the most pleasant smell he could have on him. There had been a few books lying on a shelf, all of which weren't of particular interest to him but he had sat down to start reading them anyway in order to pass the time away. This particular one was about wildlife in Africa, perhaps not his best topic but still worth reading if the only other thing he could do was hang around bored out of his brains.

The SDIOA who were they? They had built this base, according to Roland, atop an old Goa'uld facility which had been built in turn to research the even older ruins underneath them. The SDIOA was definitely an organization of some sort, one with access to the stargates. How they had managed to get on P5H-734 without anybody else noticing was hard to determine, then again those NID guys who had stolen the Touchstone had managed to use a stargate on Earth without anybody noticing and were still at large somewhere.

Daniel was busy flicking through the book, reading bits and piece that caught his eye for whatever reason. Whoever had previously used these living quarters must have been a bit of a wildlife aficionado since that was all the few books in the room were about. Finally, after a few minutes, Daniel but the book he was skimming through down and lay back on the mostly hard bed, the consequences of what he had found out today only just beginning to bug him.

If Roland and his soldiers were from the future then that could mean they had come back in time to alter the past. If that happened something rather vital to the current timeline could change, creating an alternate timeline…Not that it would really matter, since Daniel wouldn't be in a position to know what had been altered. He hadn't seen the future but he had seen an alternate reality, one of the infinite amounts of realities that stemmed from every choice made in the current reality. If the future did change he wouldn't notice and neither would everyone else native to this particular timeline. In other words, it really wouldn't matter.

Just as his mind began to ponder over what Roland had said the very man arrived at the door, visible through the small window as he nodded to the two guards standing outside and opened the door itself. Stepping inside, he managed a smile at Daniel. Of course, the archaeologist could tell that there was some other reason why he was here and it wasn't mere pleasantries.

"Dr. Jackson," Roland began, "I've come to check up on you to see how things in your new accommodations are going."

Daniel sat up, able to see that Roland was expecting him to change his mind. The thought did cross Daniel's mind again but he decided he would see what would happen if he refused for the second time. He was already annoyed at how smug Roland seemed about everything in general, as if he had this whole thing planned…

And what if he did? He was from the future, after all. How could you possibly defeat an opponent who had seen the future? Perhaps his sheer visit to this particular time had already altered something and thus the future he knew might not have occurred. In other words, time travel was a very hard thing for someone to wrap their head around.

"You want me to help you, don't you?" Daniel asked, preferring to skip the meaningless pleasantries and get straight to the point.

"Well, I would prefer that you did," Roland replied, his smile fading, "but that isn't why I'm here now. Rather, I came here so I could take you to see something in particular…"

"What?"

"Just come with me, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, making it sound like more of an order than a request, "I'm sure you'll be intrigued."

"Will I?" Daniel was doubtful of this but figured he hadn't much of a choice in the matter, standing up and following Roland out into the corridor. Whatever Roland wanted to show him couldn't be _that_ intriguing, although he was surprised when he took him over to what appeared to be the facility's control room. However, instead of banks of computers and panels that was in the SGC's control room, this one was quite bland and was just above the gate room. A window provided a fairly good view of the stargate itself while a single DHD was set in the centre of the room. A few technicians stood nearby, one of which was behind the DHD and dialling in symbols. Down in the gate room stood at least thirty heavily armed and armoured soldiers, standing to attention in lines of ten. Before them the stargate activated, sending forth the kawhoosh effect that Daniel had become so accustomed to over the last few years. The soldiers stood rigid, their rifles held to their chests. They reminded Daniel of the Terra Cotta soldiers in China, the soldiers down in the gate room these stood perfectly rigid as if they were empty husks.

Why Roland had dragged him out here wasn't completely obvious. Daniel assumed that these soldiers were embarking on some sort of excursion through the stargate: however, there was more to it then that. Not only were the soldiers strangely rigid, as if they had gone into some sort of stand by mode but a technician was walking out into the gate room, wheeling behind him some sort of device on a cart. It looked like some sort of high-tech cannon; however the glowing blue bars on either side of the barrel indicated that it was something more.

"What's going on?" Daniel asked, noticing that Roland was watching what was going on in the gate room very closely.

"Those soldiers down there," Roland said, sounding a little proud about something, "take a closer look at their helmets…"

Daniel did as Roland said, looking towards one of the inhumanly rigid soldiers and noticing something a little unnerving: the visors on these soldiers seemed to be illuminated by an eerie green glow from within. Perhaps it was some sort of trick, it was hard to tell. However, Daniel suddenly had the feeling that Roland was showing him something that he should be quite surprised about. Those soldiers down there weren't human.

"They're synthetic," Roland remarked, "unlike most of my other soldiers, those thirty or so down there are synthetic. The armour they wear is a part of them. They have a rudimentary intelligence and excellent combat abilities…"

"This is what you wanted to show me?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow. Synthetic soldiers? Was he really expected to even to begin to believe such a claim? He needed more evidence and even so, he wasn't sure what Roland was achieving by showing him this. No doubt Carter would be interested in this sort of thing. Unfortunately for her (or fortunately, it was hard for Daniel to determine) she wasn't here to see this or have the benefit of Roland's company. Not that Roland's company was very beneficial.

"Not just this," Roland said, nodding towards the device that the technician had set up in front of the shimmering wall of fluctuating energy that was the wormhole within the stargate.  
"That device is one of many I have in my arsenal. It is capable of sending a signal which we can alter to affect any sort of technology, such as what is at your SGC. That means we can use it…"

"…Open the iris…" Daniel finished off Roland's sentence, realizing just what was happening. These synthetic soldiers were going to raid the SGC and that device that was now whirring into life several metres in front of the stargate was going to open the iris for them.

"That's why you didn't need the iris codes," Daniel said, looking towards Roland with wide eyes. Roland nodded with a smug look on his face, satisfied with Daniel's reaction.

What the hell was Roland going to do? What were these soldiers going to do? No doubt they were going to give the people at the SGC a good thrashing…but why? Roland answered this question, having noticed the look of uncertainty that crossed the archaeologist's face.

"To send a warning to your friends at the SGC," Roland explained, "that way they don't come back here. At least, I hope they heed the warning I am about to give them…for their sake…"

Jack, Teal'c, Carter, Katelyn, Hammond…They would be at the SGC. If those soldiers down in the gate room made it into the SGC then there was no telling what would happen. No doubt many people would die and the SGC would be out of commission for a while. Of course, Daniel wasn't about to stand by and let this happen.

Down in the gate room a narrow blue beam was shooting forth from the device and into the event horizon, no doubt proceeding to open the iris and do all sorts of damage to the computer systems at the SGC. After that, the soldiers would flow on through the stargate and proceed to shoot the place up.

"You can't do this!" Daniel exclaimed, controlling the urge to tackle Roland to the floor. Roland was unfazed by Daniel's increasing aggression, simply eyeing the archaeologist carefully.

"Calm now, Dr. Jackson, I'm sure your friends in SG-1 will be alright," Roland replied coolly.

"But…why do this?" Daniel asked, unable to keep the desperation out of his voice, "why? Just so you can prove to us how much more advanced you are? Because we already know…"

Roland glared at him, anger on his features now for what seemed like the very first time since Daniel had met him. He pointed an accusing and gloved finger towards the archaeologist, as if what Daniel had said had struck a personal chord in him somehow…

"No! You don't know half of the truth!" Roland grabbed him at the collar and quite to the archaeologist's surprise he lifted him up off of the floor by at least six inches. Daniel could feel Roland's inhumanly strong grip tightening on him, the man's hate filled eyes staring right into Daniel's soul. The archaeologist began to gag, his features going red as Roland tightened his grip around his throat further.

"For years I was a mere test subject for the SDIOA!" Roland shouted right into Daniel's face, as if he thought the archaeologist couldn't hear him properly. "For years I let them do their experiments…and then they tried to discard me, as if I were some science experiment that didn't work out…

"So I escaped," Roland proclaimed, although Daniel wasn't quite sure on what this man was yelling about. Instead, Daniel was more concerned with not choking to death, only just noticing that the soldiers down in the gate room were beginning to move through the stargate in a squad formation.

"I formed the army you see under my command," Roland continued, barely loosening his grip on Daniel's throat. The archaeologist's eyes began to water and he began to flail his arms, trying to fight off the light headedness that was beginning to overtake him.

"I found a method to come back to a time when the SDIOA is weak," Roland said, "and I intend to wreak my revenge on them for what they did to me and the rest of the human race…"

He finally released Daniel of his chokehold grip, dropping him to the floor as if he were trash. Daniel immediately fell onto all fours, coughing and gagging as he tried to regain his breath. Roland returned his gaze towards the gate room, calming down almost immediately as he had gotten angry minutes earlier.

"You will help me with the translations, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, his voice calm and controlled. He managed a quick glance towards the coughing archaeologist who was on all fours on the floor nearby, barely managing to return the gaze.

"Or you will, well…" Roland paused. "Pardon the cliché, Dr. Jackson, but if you don't help me I'll kill you."  
Daniel was barely worried about whatever Roland intended to do with him. Rather, there was the one thought that was running through his mind at this time, the one blatantly obvious fact above all the others.

_Roland Halverson was insane._

* * *

**Location:** Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado

The stargate stood activated down in the gate room, SDIOA armed goons standing at the ready at the base of the ramp. The iris had opened by itself, how was beyond anyone's knowledge. The technician who sat before the dialling computer was typing away hurriedly, trying to close the iris or at the very least shut down the stargate. Nothing was working however, increasing the franticness of the situation.

Jack stood in the control room, watching events unfold with only a slight indifference. No doubt that this wormhole had come from P5H-734: the enemy there was slightly more advanced than what was available at the SGC. It made sense that they had some sort of method of opening the iris, although the one way that entered Jack's mind worried him. What if Daniel had given the enemy the codes? It was a startling thought but even so it didn't explain why the stargate was shutting down no matter how many times the technician inputted the right commands into the computer.

General Robards stood nearby, looking aghast at the situation. He obviously didn't like the idea of an enemy that could gain access to the SGC with such ease. However, Jack couldn't help but think it was convenient since Robards had just been about to send a nuke through and destroy any chance there was of finding Daniel. If the enemy hadn't activated the stargate then Robards would have gone ahead with his stupid plan and blown up part of P5H-734.

Katelyn stood nearby, watching things develop with her usual cool demeanour. She did seem curious as to what exactly was going, still unsure of what to think of what was happening. It was obvious that they should be heading down to the armoury right about now.

"So, what about that plan of yours now, General?" Jack asked, looking towards Robards and trying to determine what he was thinking through the surprised look he had on his face.

That was when the first of the soldiers came out of the wormhole. They flowed out in a squad formation, weapons raised and armour glistening in the light of the room. As soon as they emerged from the rippling event horizon they opened fire, mowing down the surprised SDIOA goons that had been standing at the ready. The emerging soldiers immediately spread out, finishing off the few SDIOA goons that were left in the gate room before turning their attention towards the windows of the control room.

"Lock down the base!" Robards ordered and the technician struggled to gain control of the unruly computer. The screen was beginning to fuzz out and not only was it happening to the dialling computer but the other computers in the control room as well. Screens began to descend into white noise while the banks of switches and lights began to spark and smoke.

"Nothing's responding, sir!" The technician replied, just as the soldiers down in the gate room opened fire on the thick bulletproof glass that provided the view down from the control room and into the gate room. At first the shots dented the glass, inclining the people in the gate room to duck. Jack realized that the glass wouldn't hold for long and besides, there wasn't anything stopping those soldiers from going through the blatantly open blast doors in the gate room and into the control room themselves.

Robards realized the extent of what was happening, just as the last of the enemy soldiers flowed on through the stargate and the wormhole closed behind them. Before him the glass smashed inwards, showering the General, the technician, Jack and Katelyn with shards. One stray bullet caught Robards in the shoulder, knocking him backwards and onto the floor where he groaned loudly.

Jack and Katelyn were both crouched, exchanging looks as they both figured out what they should do. The technician was crouched behind a bank of computers as bullets zipped through the air above them, smashing into banks of panels and switches and sending sparks flying everywhere. By now the alarms were sounding throughout the base but that did little to stop the thirty or so soldiers who had begun to flow out of the gate room. By now base personnel around the entire complex were on high alert but by the sounds of the shooting that Jack could hear, they weren't doing a good job of stopping the enemy.

"I think getting to an armoury would be a great idea!" Jack exclaimed over the din of the gunfire, alarms and shouting. He and Katelyn started out of the room, keeping low as they emerged into a nearby corridor. They both knew the location of the closest armoury but getting there was going to prove to be a bit of a problem. Two of the soldiers were coming from the other end of the corridor, their visors glowing an eerie green in the dimmed lights of the base. At the other end of the hall three special forces guards came from around a corner, immediately getting fired upon by the pair of enemy soldiers. One of them fell while the other two retreated into cover, returning fire with their side-arms.

Jack and Katelyn waited for the right moment before running through either side's field of fire, Jack able to feel his heart pounding as several rounds chipped the wall near his head. He and Katelyn arrived in a narrower corridor that branched off of the main one and here a few more of the base's guards were flowing through, on their way to combat the large enemy incursion force.

One of the armouries was close by, locked by a keypad that Jack activated by sliding his pass-card through it. Inside was a small room filled with racks of the standard issue arsenal available in the SGC, ranging from MP5 submachine guns, Beretta pistols, automatic rifles and a few captured staff weapons and zat'ni'katels. The soldiers raiding the base were wearing armour, thus a standard submachine gun may not do much in the way of armour penetration. Hence, Jack grabbed one of the M4 rifles off of a nearby rack and loaded it with a fresh magazine, making sure to take a few spares as well. Katelyn grabbed a zat'ni'katel and SPAS-12 shotgun and the pair found themselves a Kevlar vest to go with their load-out. Something told jack that simple Kevlar wouldn't do much to stop the high powered rounds the enemy soldiers used but it was better than nothing.

Weapons fire and alarms sounded throughout the complex as the soldiers systematically went through each room before finding themselves caught up fighting in the corridors of sublevels twenty-eight and twenty-seven. Emerging from the armoury, Jack and Katelyn were fired upon by a pair of the soldiers from down the corridor. Jack stepped back behind cover, making sure to descend into the calm state he took during all combat situations. There was an enemy force in the SGC and it was obvious that it was some sort of suicide raid, these enemy soldiers having arrived to simply cause as much destruction as possible. No doubt they were fanatically loyal soldiers to undertake such a mission, one where most would not return to their base.

Jack didn't care much for their reasons for being here, just that they were wrecking the SGC and gunning down good soldiers. He made sure to stay behind the doorway of the armoury as the pair of armoured soldiers fired from down the hall, peppering the concrete wall near him with bullets and blowing chunks from it.

Katelyn rolled from out of the armoury and came up firing her SPAS-12, the shots booming through the corridor. Sparks flew off of the soldiers as buckshot hammered into them, making them stumble backwards. Jack leaned around from his spot of cover and pulled the trigger on his M4, watching as one of the soldiers fell backwards in a hail of sparks and little else. The other soldier went down when Katelyn blasted him with a well placed shot into the face, blowing away the visor and several pieces of metal. Once the two enemy soldiers were down, Katelyn raced over to the bodies to get a closer look. Jack followed, keeping alert just in case anymore of the soldiers showed up.

Katelyn went down on her knees to get a closer look at the smashed visor of the soldier she had killed, managing a look of surprise when she saw what was through the visor. Jack looked as well, suitably surprised at what was inside.

"They're not even human," Katelyn said simply, "they're some kind of…machine…"

Through the smashed faceplate was a mess of advanced looking lights and circuitry, although no wires were visible indicating an advanced technology. Jack was reminded of a mission in the previous year previously where he and the rest of SG-1 had had android doubles made of them by an annoying alien guy. The technology didn't look much the same but the same basic principle was there, save for the fact that these soldiers lacked synthetic flesh. Rather, their armour was their exoskeleton which protected the inner circuits and processors. A set of glowing green eyepieces laid within the smashed mess of advanced technology, quite obviously the way these robots were able to see.

It made sense that the new enemy that had been encountered on P5H-734 wouldn't send actual humans on a suicide mission. No, instead they sent expendable synthetic soldiers to do the job instead. Not only were these soldiers harder to take down than ordinary humans but their coordination and abilities probably surpassed that of any highly trained human soldier. There was no doubt in Jack's mind that if the people of Earth ever gained access to this technology then wars would be fought with robots and not by people.

"Another excuse for us to kill them," Jack said bluntly, checking the magazine in his M4. It was practically empty so he swapped the magazine for a full one, clicking it into place into the rifle's underbelly.

Katelyn rose to her feet, loading a few more shells into her SPAS-12 before she started down the corridor, Jack following. From the sound of it the fighting was quite close, perhaps contained to a particular section of the base.

"_Attention all base personnel_." The announcement system suddenly crackled into life, causing Jack and Katelyn to stop in their tracks and listen. It was Robards' voice and he sounded a bit strained. _"An enemy incursion force has entered the base and is currently being contained on sublevels twenty-eight up to twenty-six. All available combat personnel are to report to these areas to aid in the removal of these forces…"_ There was the sound of a few gunshots over the General's voice and the announcement cut out suddenly, implying that the control room had been taken. That could mean that the General was dead, which meant…

Well, it didn't really mean anything seeing as it was General Robards who was in trouble and not Hammond. No doubt Hammond would be quite surprised at what had occurred during his short time off when he returned to the SGC and found out.

Jack and Katelyn started down the corridor again, coming across a few of the base's guards who were busy firing at an unseen enemy. Coming around the corner very carefully, Jack saw that there were a group of the synthetic soldiers down the corridor, firing away and taking cover. This indicated that these synthetic soldiers had some intelligence and weren't simply cannon fodder for the frontlines.

There was a familiar figure amongst the SGC's guards, this particular person wielding a staff weapon with some noticeable proficiency. It was Teal'c, having come from wherever he had been in the base earlier to join the firefight. He saw the Colonel approaching and headed over to him while the firefight continued behind him.

"Teal'c," Jack said, "nice of you to join us!"

Teal'c cocked his eyebrow in his usual fashion, regarding Jack and Katelyn briefly with an examining gaze.

"I am unfamiliar with this enemy, O'Neill," he said, "they are much like the humans we encountered on P5H-734, except they are…different…"

"That's just the thing," Jack said, having to speak a bit louder to be heard over the sounds of the shouting and weapons fire, "they're not human. They're machines…"  
"I see."

There was a pause before Katelyn spoke, deciding to shift the conversation into a more direct route.

"What's the status on the enemy incursion force, Teal'c?" She asked, "Are they being fought off?"

Teal'c thought about this question briefly before answering in his usual tone of voice.

"They have been pushed back to sublevels twenty-seven and twenty-eight. However, I believe they may have access to what you Tau'ri call a 'nuclear' device…"  
_The nuke, of course!_ Jack almost slapped himself on the forehead for not having seen this coming. If these synthetic soldiers were here on some sort of suicide raid, no doubt they would take advantage of the nuke left in the gate room.

"We have to get to the gate room," Jack said with absolute certainty. He paused, noticing that someone was missing. "Where's Carter?"

"She is on her way," Teal'c replied.

"Well, we're going to have to go on without her. Robards left a big bomb in the gate room and these bad guys are going to want to activate it. We have to make sure that doesn't happen."

"The enemy is protecting the gate room with considerable tenacity," Teal'c said, "the fight will be difficult…"  
Jack turned to Katelyn, noticing that she seemed excited but in her own special, calm way. The evidence was in the way her eyes were all lit up and the way she looked rather determined.

"Lieutenant, you and some of these guys should try to get to the control room," Jack said, making it sound more of an order than anything else, "Robards may still be alive and he might have a way of turning off the bomb."

Katelyn nodded, waving to a few of the Special Forces men to follow her. They obliged, leaving a few behind to hold this section of corridor against the enemy onslaught. The synthetic soldiers at the other end of the corridor had retreated back to the gate room, probably to ensure that the nuke detonated.

"Teal'c, come with me," Jack said, "we're going to disarm that bomb."

Teal'c nodded slightly and Jack began to head down the corridor, able to hear that the sounds of weapons fire had died down. In fact, he had to step over a few bodies of the synthetic soldiers and a few dead Special Forces soldiers, implying that several of the enemy were already dead. At what cost, however?

The corridor that lead to one of the gate room's entrances was unsurprisingly well protected by several of the synthetic soldiers. They had even set up makeshift barricades using debris and such, giving them good cover.

Jack and Teal'c took cover around the corner at their end of the corridor when they saw the formidable defences the enemy had set up. Weapons fire headed their way as several of the soldiers sprayed it in their general direction, blowing chunks out of the walls nearby. From behind Jack and Teal'c arrived several Special Forces soldiers; however they didn't go past the corner for obvious reasons. One of the people with this new group of Special Forces soldiers was Carter, who was wielding a zat'ni'katel.

"Ah, Captain," Jack said when he saw her, trying to ignore the rounds that pummelled into the wall near him, "there's no time for pleasantries, so I'll get straight to the point…have you got any grenades?"

* * *

The corridors to the control room had a few of the soldiers protecting them, the intruders having formed a sort of ring of defence around the gate room and control room. Katelyn stood at the front of her small group of Special Forces men, her SPAS-12 shotgun raised as she and her group blasted their way through a group of the synthetic soldiers who were defending one of the paths to the control room.

However, inside the control room stood what was obviously the leader of this group of soldiers. She could tell by the blue shoulder patches on his armour and slightly different design. He (if one could call it a "he", it was a machine) had General Robards in a painful looking headlock, the synthetic's free hand pressing a pistol against the side of the General's skull. Flanking the pair were four of the synthetic soldiers, their weapons raised and pointed towards Katelyn and her group of Special Forces troops.

"Don't come any closer," the lead synthetic said, its voice sounding metallic and inhuman, "otherwise the General will die."

Katelyn could tell that this had become a standoff. She managed a glance through the windows and into the gate room, watching as a grenade went off and sent a few of the synthetic soldiers flying. Through one of the blast doors came Jack, Teal'c and Carter followed by several Special Forces troops as they stormed the gate room. The soldiers inside were cut down with relative ease, Teal'c blasting them away with his staff weapon.

Robards glared towards Katelyn, the General's eyes wide and jaw clenched. He may as well have been begging the Lieutenant to save him.

"I have armed the naquadah enhanced nuke in the gate room," the lead synthetic continued, "The remote is wirelessly connected to my system. Kill me and it will detonate the bomb."

Katelyn noticed the bomb remote attached to the synthetic's waist, figuring that the synthetic was telling the truth. She raised a hand, telling the men following her to hold their fire. The result would have been disastrous if they did open fire, though.

It occurred to her that maybe she shouldn't necessarily "kill" the lead synthetic. She had her zat'ni'katel. She just had to bring it out…

A staff weapon blast from within the gate room shot through the smashed windows of the control room and slammed into one of the synthetic soldiers. That soldier fell, a smouldering hole in the side of its head. Immediately the remaining three soldiers shifted their attention Teal'c, Jack and Carter who were down in the gate room. This was the chance Katelyn needed.

She dropped her SPAS-12 and went for her zat'ni'katel, bringing it up within seconds and switching it to its ready to fire mode. A single shot was all she needed to take down the lead synthetic, the blue bolts of energy flowing across the soldier and Robards, who groaned with pain before collapsing onto the floor in pain.

The SF soldiers with Katelyn opened fire, cutting down the remaining three synthetic soldiers. Robards, writhing about on the floor, went for the bomb remote that the lead synthetic had attached to its waist. He grabbed it and flicked a switch, presumably disarming the nuke.

However, the lead synthetic was barely harmed by the zat'ni'katel shot and seemed to recover quickly. It was impossible to tell what it was thinking seeing as it had no proper facial features save for the glowing green visor but if it were human it would probably have been angry. Katelyn watched as the lead synthetic reached for a panel at its wrist, pressing a few buttons. The Lieutenant fired her zat'ni'katel again, deciding that whatever it was planning to do wasn't a good thing. However, she must have been too late since the lead synthetic disappeared in a bright yellow flash, seemingly disintegrating into a smoky husk.

Soon enough, the bodies of the other synthetic soldiers were soon destroyed in the same manner as their leader. Nothing was left but smoking fragments and ash, leaving nothing that may have actually been useful.

Down in the gate room, Jack and the others watched the "dead' synthetics spontaneously combust with some surprise. No doubt some sort of failsafe had been activated by the lead synthetic to cause all the other synthetics to end up self-destructing.

Regardless of what had just happened, Katelyn turned her attention to Robards who was only just rising to his feet. He didn't seem particularly grateful for the rescue but Katelyn grabbed him by the collar anyway, finding the aghast gaze he gave her somewhat amusing.

"How about you let us go rescue Daniel?" She asked, looking straight into his eyes. Was that some fear she saw in them?

"What are you doing?" Robards declared breathlessly, "unhand me immediately!"

"So you can just go ahead and blow up that planet?" Katelyn asked, annoyed at the way the General assumed she would act towards him. "No, I'm not letting that happen and neither is anybody else. Instead, I can send you through that stargate and right into the hands of the enemy that just attacked…I'm sure they'll find you useful."

"What?" Robards sounded frantic now and he tried to struggle from Katelyn's strong grip but to no avail. "You can't do that to me…I'm a General!"

"All of your goons in this base are dead, just in case you didn't notice," Katelyn said sternly, "and I can make your death look like it was done by the enemy soldiers. Now, are you going to let us rescue Daniel or not?"

Robards, faced with no other alternative, nodded his head. He did smile, however, but it was mostly a forced smile than anything else.

"You can't use the stargate…the computers are busted," Robards said, "so…"

"So we'll manually dial out," Katelyn replied bluntly, having anticipated this counter from the General.

"Okay, you win!" Robards said finally, "but I'll court martial your ass if you don't do just one thing for me."

"And what's that?"

"You take the bomb with you, that way if you and your friends stuff up I can open the gate and send the signal that detonates the bomb myself. Is that clear?"  
Reluctantly, Katelyn let the General go and took a step back. Satisfied with what had just occurred she nodded, although she didn't like the idea of bringing the nuke along.

"It's clear," she said.


	21. Return to P5H734

**Part Three: The Wrath of Khnum**

**Chapter Nineteen: Return to P5H-734**

**Location: **P5H-734

The Goa'uld facility was only small, situated right beneath the SDIOA complex that lay within the mountain. The interior of the Goa'uld facility was typical of their kind, with ancient hieroglyphics lining the golden-brown walls and doors that were activated by carefully concealed switches. The Goa'uld facility was only made up of a few rooms, one of which was large and seemed to be directly located next to the even older ruins that Roland had mentioned. Beyond a shimmering, near impenetrable force field lay a vast cavernous expanse that went a fair way down, spiralling staircases heading deep into darkness. Whatever Roland Halverson was after it was undoubtedly at the very base of the cavernous expanse, however the problem was that the impenetrable force field was in the way.

It was because of this that Daniel had been more or less given the option to help Roland in getting past the force field or get killed. It wasn't much of a choice and so Daniel had taken the former option, more because it would allow him to find out more about this place and why Roland was here than for any other reason. Something told him that Roland wouldn't kill him, especially since that would undoubtedly change the timeline: if Daniel was to meet Roland in the future then that would mean to avoid adversely affecting the future Roland must keep the archaeologist alive. Of course, this was the conclusion that Daniel had come up with in the last half an hour since he had almost been choked to death by Roland and the conclusion rested on the supposed fact that Roland was actually from the future. There was nothing to prove that he wasn't making it up, although all the advanced technology his army seemed to have in their possession strengthened the idea that Roland was from a future period of time. In other words, time travel was a heck of a confusing thing.

Daniel had been given his own table to conduct his translations as well as the resources necessary to help them. This included a rather high-tech computer filled to the brim with knowledge about the Goa'uld and Ancients, undoubtedly from the future as well. Unfortunately, all but one section of this information was locked out to him, an obvious move by Roland to ensure that the timeline wasn't altered anymore than it should have been. No doubt that Roland had spent much time planning his trip into the past, even to the extent that he had factored into it the possible arrival of SG teams. Hence the reason he had taken advantage of Daniel and was now using him to help him get through the force field that was protecting the ancient ruins.

Daniel was unable to help but feel some concern for the people back at the SGC who had just bore the brunt of an all-out attack. No doubt that Roland had been intent on making sure the SGC was in no position for a retaliatory attack, something which decreased Daniel's chances of getting rescued.

Sure, he had been in more dangerous situations but this one was particularly interesting since he was facing an enemy that was possibly from the future. That could mean that they already knew the outcome of what occurred here today and that no matter what Daniel did he would simply be helping to further that outcome. In fact, it could be a futile gesture to try and stop this enemy since they could already know that they would win. That is, if they were meant to win. As he had been thinking earlier, time travel was a confusing thing to wrap one's head around. If Carter were here she would probably be fascinated.

Daniel had been given a few chunks of writings removed from the outer wall of the ancient ruins and Roland had guessed that they had something to do with how to turn the force field off. Even so, Roland had still organized some of his technicians to try and get past the force field with other means. Right now a few technicians were operating some sort of device that they had placed in front of the force field, much like the device Daniel had seen placed before the stargate earlier that had apparently opened the iris at the SGC's stargate. This device was emitting a narrow beam towards the force field but wasn't exactly ding much else except making the blue force field flare as if something had hit it. It didn't appear to be changing at all and yet the technicians waited patiently, altering dials and switches on the device. No doubt Roland was expecting them to make some sort of progress with getting through the shield.

It had occurred to Daniel that if a powerful force field had been put up to prevent anyone from entering a particular place then there was no doubt a very good reason as to why this had been done. If there was in fact an artefact of immense power beyond that shield then maybe it wasn't meant for anyone to get a hold of. Regardless of why the force field was there Daniel still worked on the translations, finding the dialect on the tablets he had been given incredibly difficult to decipher. The information on the laptop computer didn't help much either and so he had been making little progress for the last half an hour. Still, half an hour wasn't much time when it came to translating an ancient set of writings and he had the feeling that Roland was going to let him continue on well into the night.

Daniel had since lost all track of time since he had been brought into this underground facility, having learnt that the time on his digital watch didn't correspond well to the time on this planet. There were fourteen hour days here on P5H-734 so Earth time wasn't going to go very well with the time of day on this world. Even so, Daniel estimated that it was about late morning, perhaps earlier.

So far he had determined that the ancient alien writings in question were much like those found on the planet where Jack had had the knowledge of the Ancients accidentally downloaded into his mind. No doubt the facility here had been built by the Ancients, it just seemed odd that the writings would be slightly different, perhaps coming from another point of the history of the Ancients. Whatever the reason it was difficult to get a cohesive sentence translated, thus Daniel had been working on getting single words done and trying to make sense of them as a whole. He was worried that Roland might show up and be a little impatient, although so far Roland had left him alone.

Daniel was still trying to make sense of what Roland had said about being a "test subject" and "escaping" and forming an army. These vague claims made by Roland only created more questions than answers, although they may explain the man's slight oddities. Obviously he was mentally scarred from something, what though was beyond Daniel's knowledge.

Even so, Daniel was curious as to what was kept beyond the ancient force field. An incredible power source would have been needed to keep it going for this long and no doubt that this power source would be a major asset to anyone willing to exploit it. Perhaps that was why there were so many energy signatures scattered throughout this region of the planet, creating the interference that made radio contact near impossible? Whatever the reason, there was an immense power buried underneath this world and Roland was probably going to want some of it. No doubt that Daniel was gradually aiding the madman into getting what he wanted, but even so Daniel intended for his involvement here to be short-lived. Escape was foremost on the archaeologist's mind, all he needed was to gain Roland's trust some more and get access to the ring transporter that took people to and from the surface.

Daniel was thinking through how he was going to do this when an unexpected figure walked over, a rifle slung around its shoulder. He looked up from his work and saw that it was the young woman he had seen earlier while out in the clearing during his capture, the one that he was certain had shot him in the leg. As if to differentiate her from the other soldiers she wasn't wearing a helmet but a noticeably thicker armour vest. Her blonde hair was tied back into a neat ponytail and her blue eyes seemed to be hiding some sort of inner fire, the type that Daniel had sensed within Katelyn.

The woman frowned, looking at what he was doing and obviously having trouble working it out.

"Any luck, doctor?" She asked, her voice laced with some dislike towards the archaeologist.

"And who are you?" Daniel tried to keep a straight face but there was something about this girl he didn't like, as if she was hiding some sort hidden agenda. Then again, a lot of people here seemed to be hiding their own agenda.

"I ask the questions, not you," she said bluntly, her right hand going down to her sidearm.

_Great, another crazy._ Daniel could see that this woman had some serious mental health problems, especially in the way she seemed to have suddenly gotten angry. She took out her pistol, revealing it to have a suppressor attached to the end of the barrel. She began to spin it around in her hand, as if to show off her coordination.

"Uh…okay…" Daniel wasn't interested in talking to this woman but she seemed to be interested in whatever it was that he was doing. Daniel tried to get back to work but he couldn't with the woman standing nearby, watching him.

"The boss told me to keep an eye on you," she said abruptly, "he doesn't trust you."

"Oh…" Daniel had figured that the guards nearby had been to watch him but it seemed that hadn't been the case. Instead, he now had his own personal bodyguard that would stop him from trying to escape. Obviously Roland didn't trust him enough to allow him to work in private.

"You know that Jaffa guy that's in your team?" The woman asked, Daniel raising an eyebrow. Why was she trying to start a conversation with him now for?

"Teal'c?"

"Yeah. That bastard shot me," the woman replied, "it was yesterday, a few hours before we caught you. That Teal'c guy blasted me right in the chest…"

_He was trying to do us all a favour_, Daniel thought, suppressing a grin. The woman didn't notice, instead she frowned as if thinking about something in particular.

"Luckily I was wearing some decent armour plating," she replied, continuing the one-sided conversation for all it's worth. It certainly wasn't worth much, more of a waste of time on the woman's part than anything else.

Daniel was about to tell her to be quiet in as pleasant a way as possible when Roland wandered over, looking his normal calm self. The outburst earlier had been entirely unforeseen and Daniel was hoping that it wouldn't happen again, otherwise he figured that Roland may actually choke him to death this time. He watched as Roland shot a look at the woman, one that told her that this wasn't her place to be at the moment.

"Sarah, why don't you leave Dr. Jackson alone?" Roland asked the young woman, "He's trying to work…"  
"Yeah, right," Sarah replied sarcastically, "he'll try escaping if you're not careful. And when he does, I'll kill him."  
Daniel could see that Sarah had been only here to annoy him and not to guard him. Why Roland was here was uncertain, although it seemed like the appropriate time to check up on his progress with the translations. Not much progress had been made though and Daniel was hoping Roland wouldn't have an outburst like the one he had had before. Daniel could tell that Sarah was serious when she said that she would kill him but the archaeologist wasn't too fazed, instead finding it a relief as the unstable young woman walked away to return to her own work and leave him to his. Roland, however, turned to Daniel and was looking gravely serious.

"Let me guess," Daniel said before Roland could start talking, "there's something wrong?"

Roland nodded, although the grave look on his face subsided.

"Dr. Jackson, there's been an expected development that I know that you'll want to find out a little more about," Roland said, "simply follow me."

"You want to show me something…again?" Daniel asked, unsure of how to react. What was it with this guy and him taking Daniel off to see stuff? What was it that he wanted Daniel to see this time?

"This time, Daniel, it affects all of us," Roland said, starting down the corridor. Daniel left what he was doing and began to follow, heading out of the small Goa'uld facility and into the human-made SDIOA section. This time Roland took him into a dimly lit room filled with high-tech looking computers, one of which was set into the wall. Several technicians sat around checking readouts and computer screens, mostly ignoring Roland and Daniel's presences as they entered the room.

The computer set into the wall looked more advanced than any of the others and that was when Daniel realized that this room resembled that of the architecture of the Ancients, implying that it was merely part of the greater facility left behind by those ancient aliens.

"The Ancients used this planet as a sort of research outpost," Roland explained, fiddling with the orbs at the Ancient computer console. The screen kicked into life, showing what appeared to be a vast star-field in space.

"Understandably, they built many satellites to orbit this world as an early warning system against possible enemy incursions," Roland explained, fiddling with one of the orbs that in turn shifted the camera view on the screen. It revealed part of a blue-green sphere that the camera seemed to be quite close to. Daniel realized that the blue-green sphere that now took up half of the screen was in fact the planet they were on.

"With this console, I am able to tap into one of the many ancient satellites left behind by the Ancients," Roland said, "and I'm afraid that we've detected something unexpected…"

"What?" Daniel didn't like the worried tone in Roland's voice, as if hinting at some kind of big problem. Not that it really mattered much to Daniel, since he had been planning to escape for a while. Whatever Roland had taken him here to see must have been fairly important, though.

Roland pressed one of the orbs at the computer which zoomed the camera towards a certain section of distant space. There, amongst the stars, were several shapes. A further zoom certified what they were and immediately Daniel felt worried.

"Two Goa'uld mother-ships," Roland said, tapping the screen where they were, "escorted by several alkesh bombers. This means that some snakehead's on his way here, and I have a feeling on who it is…"

Daniel looked at the screen and then Roland. He wasn't quite sure what an alkesh was but he didn't bother asking about that, instead he was trying t figure out just what Goa'uld would even bother with this world.

"It has to be Khnum," Roland said, answering Daniel's question, "obviously his thousand year absence was only temporary. In fact, I should have seen this coming…"  
_  
Yeah, you should of since you're from the future._ Daniel was startled at just how out of hand the situation was getting, first with an enemy from the future and now an approaching Goa'uld fleet.

"That means that our work here must be hurried along," Roland declared, looking towards Daniel, "and that means you must translate those writings as soon as you can. It will only be a matter of hours before Khnum arrives and starts enslaving the local population, and unfortunately we may be caught in the middle of it."  
Daniel nodded, although he had the feeling that a development like this would increase his chances of escape. Roland and his forces would be to busy worrying about the arrival of the Goa'uld to really pay much attention to him, something which Daniel knew he could take advantage of.

* * *

It was cold and damp outside, the clouds overhead thick and grey and ominous. In the clearing where the planet's main stargate was located about six armed and armoured human soldiers stood guard nearby, two of which were manning mounted guns. All six were bored and fed up with being forced to stand guard out in the cold and the wet, since rain had occurred a few times in the past day. It didn't seem to be over yet either, with the clouds above occasionally rumbling with thunder and crackling with lightning. A storm was on its way, no doubt.

Only about forty-five minutes earlier did the stargate activate, forming a wormhole. At that time the six men had stood at the ready, weapons trained on the wormhole and expecting someone to come from who could be considered an "enemy". However, no one had come through and the wormhole had turned off after a few minutes of nothing happening.

Now the stargate's inner ring had begun to rotate again. Immediately the six soldiers trained their weapons towards the mouth of the stargate, waiting for whatever was to come through. The chevrons locked one by one and lit up when they did. The soldiers watched as seven were locked and the wormhole activated, sending forth the splash which still managed to create awe in those who watched, even if they may have seen it dozens of times.

For a moment nothing emerged from the rippling event horizon, leading a few of the soldiers to relax only slightly. All six were tense and expectant however, although they were surprised by what came out of the event horizon.

It was a MALP, much like the ones the SGC sent through to scout out the area around the stargate. However, this one was different because items had been strapped to its back and covered with a tarp. The MALP stopped but the stargate remained open, rippling like water.

The camera on the MALP did not move. One of the soldiers relaxed and headed towards the device, rifle at the ready just in case something happened. The other soldiers watched him through their peripheral vision, preferring to keep their gaze fixed on the event horizon within the stargate. Something could still come through, otherwise the stargate would have most likely shutdown by now.

The soldier at the MALP reached towards the tarp on the back of the MALP, pulling it away. It took him a moment to realize what was underneath and he stood agape, realizing that he was most likely about to bear the brunt of what was about to happen. Underneath the tarp had been a large set of plastic explosives and a few small fuel canisters to add to the bomb. In fact, a closer inspection revealed that the MALP had been turned into a portable bomb and that the compartments inside of it were filled with explosives.

Before the soldier investigating the booby trapped MALP could properly react the bombs on the MALP detonated into a massive fireball which incinerated the soldier and the other two standing nearby. The column of fire and smoke extended high up and the concussion of the blast knocked down the other three soldiers, leaving them momentarily dazed.

With the half of the six guards dead and the other three temporarily stunned, Colonel Jack O'Neill emerged from the event horizon wielding an M4 rifle and he immediately opened fire towards one of the soldiers manning one of the mounted guns. The soldier jerked slightly and fell under the intense fire, sparks flying off of his armour as most of the bullets ricocheted off. The ones that made it through were enough to kill him, the soldier slumping against the mounted gun.

Following Jack came Samantha Carter, a zat'ni'katel held at the ready. She saw one of the soldiers who had been knocked down by the MALP explosion beginning to get to his feet. She took careful aim and fired twice, both hitting the armoured soldier in quick succession and killing him.

Katelyn and Teal'c emerged from the wormhole, Katelyn with her rifle raised and Teal'c with his staff weapon at the ready. The last remaining soldier who was manning one of the mounted guns prepared to fire but was stopped when Teal'c aimed towards him and fired, the blast sending the soldier flying into the mud. With the vicinity free of enemy forces the team started down the steps from the mouth of the stargate. Behind them, SG teams 3 and 5 emerged, all of the team members with their weapons at the ready. When they saw that the area was clear they relaxed.

Last out of the wormhole was the remote controlled cart that carried the naquadah bomb. It stopped just off to the side of the stargate and sat there, almost as if it was a completely innocent object. In fact it was quite the opposite.

Jack didn't like the idea of bringing the bomb along but General Robards had made it clear that there would be no rescue mission if they didn't bring the bomb along with them. It was a bad idea no doubt but if they had refused to bring the bomb along then Robards wouldn't have let them go and would have sent the bomb through anyway.

Bringing the bomb with them would give them a chance to stop Robards from detonating it. If they returned with Daniel and the bomb after twenty-four hours then Robards would have no choice but to not detonate it and let the situation on P5H-734 fix itself up. That meant that time was of the essence and standing around here wasn't going to help anyone.

SG-3 and SG-5 had come along as backup, since the enemy on this planet was undoubtedly tough and hard to handle by a single team. SG-3 was lead by the rather by-the-book Colonel Makepeace, someone who Jack knew well enough but perhaps not as well as he should have. Makepeace was a capable enough soldier and the same could be said for the rest of his team. On the other hand, Colonel Kessler who lead SG-5 was by far a bit of an idiot in anyone's opinion but he seemed to know what he was doing when it came to combat. Kessler stood in front of the stargate, surveying the area around them and frowning.

"What a dreary place," he commented aloud, "has all the excitement of a cemetery. And it's cold…a bit too cold for my liking."

Nobody else said anything, most of them concentrating on the task at hand. Jack could see SG-8's camp, the tent still looking dirty and tattered. No doubt it would stay here and rot away over time since no one cared enough about it to pack it up. It was a reminder of the rescue mission that had first brought SG-1 to the planet, a mission that had only been yesterday but seemed much longer ago than that.

"Okay people, we're here," Jack said bluntly, taking a look around the landscape before them. In the distance was the mountain which housed the SDIOA complex, the one that general Robards had wanted to be destroyed by the nuke. Obviously he was trying to do that to cover up the organization's tracks and whatever it was they had been doing on this planet.

"The mountain's down that way," Jack said, pointing in its general direction, "it's quite a walk. No doubt the bad guys will have patrols between here and there as well."

"I am surprised that there were few guards in this clearing," Teal'c said, some concern in his voice.

Jack shrugged. He wasn't about the question the ease they had had in getting through the gate without being shot at. The booby-trapped MALP had been Katelyn's idea. There was no doubt that she was into that sort of thing, catching the enemy by surprise with some explosives.  
"Maybe all the others are busy?" Katelyn said. That was probably why there had only been six of them out here, or that they just weren't expecting an attack after the raid that had occurred on the SGC. Well, Jack wasn't about to let them remain all smug with what they had achieved back at the SGC. Those synthetic soldiers had come awfully close to destroying the base and possibly half of the planet's surface with the naquadah bomb.

"Alright, let's get moving," Jack ordered, deciding to get on with why they were hearing. No doubt that Daniel was being kept in the main facility, although one could never be certain. Of course, there were other reasons for venturing to the main facility such as determining why the SDIOA had set up the base and why. Robards probably wouldn't have liked an SG team prying into the business of his organization but unfortunately for him, he wasn't here to stop them from doing it.

"Kessler," Jack turned around to look towards the bemused Colonel.

"Colonel?" Kessler looked up, having been fiddling with his M4 rifle.

"You and your team keep watch on the gate," Jack said, the plan they had formulated before coming here running through his mind again, "that way this escape route is always open. If I and my team don't come back here with an hour to spare, you are to return to Earth with the bomb. Chances are it'll be because we're dead or that we escaped through this planet's other stargate, that is if there is another stargate."

Kessler nodded, understanding the order perfectly. Jack was already thinking that an escape through the planet's other stargate would be more convenient, that is if they found this other stargate. There was no proof as yet to its existence so it would probably be better to have a backup plan just in case.

"Makepeace, you and your team will stick with us for now," Jack said, "the extra help would probably be, you know…beneficial."  
"Understood, Colonel," Makepeace said. He and Kessler, as well as their teams, had been quickly briefed on this new enemy and what little that was known about them. They knew what to expect, such as weapons that were close to ineffectual against the armour the bad guys wore and the fact that the bad guys had superior weaponry. Then again, so did the Goa'uld so it really wasn't anything new.

"I wonder if Daniel's alright?" Carter asked aloud.

"He will be," Jack said with some certainty even though there was no indication to Daniel's overall health anywhere he could see. It would be a matter of finding out and, for the sake of these bad guys, Daniel better be alright. If he wasn't then Jack might just get angry.

"Let's go," Jack said simply, starting across the clearing. Carter, Teal'c and Katelyn followed before Makepeace and his team covered the rear. Kessler and the rest of SG-5 began to utilize the discarded camp site left behind by SG-8. It occurred to Jack that none of them actually new exactly what had happened to SG-8, except that they were dead. Sure, two of them had been shot but there was no telling by whom or whether it was an accident or not. Maybe this whole mission was against an enemy that had mistakenly interpreted them as a foe?

Jack was familiar with this forest, even though most of it looked the same. There were the muddied rainforest roads to help them along, one of which lead directly to the mountain base. This would make getting there easier but there were certainly going to be enemy patrols. Those enemy patrols could probably use radios to warn their headquarters, causing SG-1 and SG-3 to lose the element of surprise that they still had. There was still plenty of interference on the radios when Jack checked but a signal could no doubt get through over a short distance.

Both teams trudged through the mud and pushed through the undergrowth of the damp and cold rainforest, the rainforest itself eerily silent. Usually there would be birds tweeting at the very least but even that was missing, as if someone had simply switched off the ambient sound and went with the silent landscape. There was a distant rumble of thunder, indicating that a storm was approaching. Jack hoped that they wouldn't be caught in the middle of it since he was cold enough already.

"It looks like rain," Katelyn commented aloud.

"Your grasp of the obvious is inspiring, Lieutenant," Jack replied bluntly, receiving a dirty look from the Lieutenant. He wasn't in much of a mood for small talk, especially when the life of a valued team member and friend was at stake. There was no telling what might happen if the enemy discovered that they had come here to rescue Daniel: they could easily move him off-world if they had access to a stargate. Then what? It would be near impossible to find him after that.

Well, it seemed that the team would have plenty of time to think these things over. It would take a while to reach their destination while remaining out of sight of enemy patrols, not that they had encountered any just yet. It appeared to Jack that the enemy wasn't as numerous as they had been during SG-1's first visit here: it was as if most of them had returned to base, probably caught up with something a lot more important. Whatever it was, it was conveniently timed to make the job of SG-1 and SG-3 easier.

Of course, if they had known that a fleet of Goa'uld ships was on its way to the planet they probably would have hurried things up.


	22. Infiltration

**Chapter Twenty: Infiltration**

**Location:** P5H-734

Having ventured to the SDIOA facility's cafeteria about an hour ago, Daniel had had something to eat from the limited choice of mostly non-perishable food that had been there. However, even while eating he had been trying to formulate an escape scheme in order to get out of this situation and escape back to Earth. All he needed was a GDO and some sort of weapon, although he doubted his chances of escaping were very high. Even so, Roland and his soldiers were beginning to pack non-essential equipment up, concentrating all their efforts on getting past the force field that prevented entrance into the ancient ruins. Roland had even recalled most soldiers that were on guard outside back into the base, leaving most of the rainforest on the surface unpatrolled. After all, they didn't have much time seeing as Khnum's fleet was on its way to the planet and no doubt the first Jaffa would be sent down within the next couple of hours.

Hence, Daniel had figured his chances of escaping during a frenzied time like this would be higher than they had been previously during his stay in the facility. So far he had made little progress on the translations that Roland was making him do and the progress that he had made wasn't going to help anyone anyway. Instead, Daniel had taken some time off of the work he had been made to do and begun to observe where the soldiers were going in and out of the facility from. Sure, there was the ring transporter but Daniel lacked the controls to work it. However, there were a pair of elevators and one stairwell that lead from the underground facility and back up to the surface and he was certain that he could probably make it back up using an elevator. After that he would just have to improvise, the best he could think of was to make his way back to the stargate out in the clearing.

Of course he could always try using the stargate in the facility but no doubt they would keep it under heavy guard. Activating it was sure to get everyone's attention, although from the amount of activity down in the gate room he doubted he would ever get a chance to use it. It seemed that troops were coming to and from the planet using that stargate, indicating that they had another stronghold on another planet. Daniel had been thinking of finding out the stargate coordinates for it but he had never been permitted to get close enough to do such a thing, as if Roland knew that this was the sort of thing he would do. It _was_ the sort of thing he would do, something that further indicated that Roland knew him well. Daniel didn't know Roland particularly well though, having come to the conclusion that the man was an unstable and potentially dangerous leader of this high-tech army. If Daniel ever met him in the future he knew what he would be doing…

That's when the archaeologist realized that if they did ever meet sometime in the distant future, nothing Daniel could do would stop him from coming back in time to this point. Technically it had already happened, except in the future: Daniel met Roland in the future and Roland travelled back in time to this year, only to meet Daniel again except that they hadn't technically met yet…

_That's REALLY confusing._ It was hard for one to wrap their head around the sheer complexities of time travel so it was better if they didn't bother. Daniel decided against any more thinking into the matter for now, he could probably formulate a theory as to Roland's reasons and methods of time travel once he has back on Earth, _if_ he was able to escape from this facility.

From the cafeteria's kitchen Daniel had managed to get himself a rather large chef's knife, the type used to cut vegetables with some efficiency. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with it but when it came to his escape it would be best to have at least some sort of weapon on him. He stored this knife in its cover and hid it inside his dirty green jacket before heading out of the cafeteria, heading back down to the Goa'uld built levels which lay below the SDIOA ones. It was here the facilities met the ancient underground ruins and it was here the force field prevented entrance into them. There was apparently no other way to get inside, hence the reason Roland had seemed to divert his best engineers and technicians to the job of trying to find a way past the force field. Even now there were a group of them working at the same particle accelerator from earlier, a beam emitting from the end of the device which went into the force field. The force field occasionally flashed a light-blue, indicating that something was being done to it. If they were being successful there then why did they need Daniel to translate the writings that had been found? Unless, of course, the writings were also about whatever lay beyond the force field.

Daniel found his way to his work station off to the corner but within sight of the technicians and the particle accelerator. Nobody had touched any of the items he had left behind on the work station, indicating that they had more respect for him than he had originally suspected. The guards that had stood nearby earlier were gone, probably off helping with the pack-up operation.

It was somewhat interesting to see the way these guys reacted when they had found out abut the incoming Goa'uld fleet. Sure, this high-tech militia from the future may have been tough for present-day Earth soldiers to handle but something told the archaeologist the Goa'uld were just as dangerous to them as they were to present day Earth people. All of these soldiers seemed to be in a hurry, making sure to pack up anything they had set up upon their first arrival here and cart it off back to the stargate for transportation off-world. Wherever they had their main base was a location Daniel would have to find out one way or another, that way some sort of operation could be planned to get rid of these bad guys so they don't end up showing up again. Of course, if they knew the future then they obviously knew their own fates. Unless their sheer presence in the past had altered the timeline, a fact that didn't seem so far-fetched.

So far Roland and his forces had shown just about as much knowledge of their immediate futures as any normal human being: none. They may have come from the future but their presence in the past would have altered the timeline in some way, perhaps not enough to render their present selves non-existent but perhaps only in subtle ways, ways that ensured that they could not anticipate everything that happened to them.

Whatever they knew about their immediate futures meant they would always be one step ahead of those in pursuit of them which included the SGC as of recently. Did that mean they knew that Daniel would try and escape? Probably not. They hadn't seen the Goa'uld fleet coming until it was within range of the satellites left behind by the Ancients: they probably wouldn't know anything of Daniel's future escape attempt.

Daniel pretended to get back to work on the translations but instead had begun thinking through his escape: when would he start and how would he go about it? He needed a gun but so far he had only acquired a sharp knife, thus he would have to make his first move count.

Looking at the ancient tablets that had been taken from the walls nearby and given to him to translate he managed to get a few sentences down in English, his mind somewhat clearer than it had been before. In fact, he was sure he could work out the rest of them if he had enough time but obviously time was the one thing that wasn't on his side. He began to jot down what he had managed to translate, making assumptions where appropriate but otherwise feeling quite certain that he had gotten the gist of what they were saying.

No wonder Roland wanted to unlock the secrets of what lay beyond the force field: if the translations were right then there was a wealth of Ancients artefacts in the ruins.

"_Beyond the seal lies the legacy of our race and what we attempted to achieve upon this world. Such power is meant for no one alone…"_

Daniel was reading quietly to himself, realizing that he was onto something. Not only that but it sounded like that force field had been put in place for a good reason, especially serious when it came to the words "power" and "no one alone". Whatever lay beyond that force field was powerful, powerful enough that the Ancients didn't want anybody to get it. No wonder the Goa'uld had been interested in this place, they may have actually gotten through the force field if Khnum hadn't been forced to go on the run for the last thousand years. Now he was on his way back, no doubt to claim whatever lay beyond the force field.

Daniel was abruptly brought out of his reverie of thoughts and doubts and assumptions by a familiar voice, one that inclined him to quickly hide the notes he had just hastily written before turning around to face the owner of the voice.

"Dr. Jackson," Roland said, sounding friendly enough and oblivious to the fact that Daniel had just stuffed some notes into his jacket, "have you made much progress?"

Should he tell the truth? Probably not. Roland wasn't exactly someone you wanted to get a hold of powerful ancient alien artefacts. Daniel tried his best to sound as truthful as possible but realized he wasn't doing a good job at it. He had never been a good liar.

"Well, uh…no, not really," he replied, "It's all in some variant of Ancient that I've never encountered before. It'll be a while before I actually get anything translated."

Roland nodded, obviously not noticing that Daniel was lying. Or he just didn't care, whatever the reason. Instead, he thought for a moment whilst surveying the items scattered across the work station, as if there was something on his mind.

"Very well, Dr. Jackson," Roland said simply, "although I feel that you're help is unnecessary now, since we are making some progress with the particle accelerator. We may not need you at all."

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Daniel couldn't tell and so he simply raised an eyebrow, glancing over to where the particle accelerator was located. The technicians there were operating it as usual, the beam emitting and causing the force field that blocked the entrance to the chamber to flare abruptly.

"Keep working though," Roland added, "you may find out something important."

"Like what?" Daniel had already found out a little bit that seemed rather important but he would keep it to himself. He was curious as to how much Roland knew of this place.

"Well, I expect that the writings on the wall would describe just why exactly the Ancients created the item I am after and why it's been buried away behind an impenetrable force field," Roland replied, "that's about the extent of it, really. Usually I would do such a translation myself but unfortunately I'm a busy man, that's why you're here, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel nodded. That meant that Roland could probably do these translations himself and so would probably know if Daniel was faking a lack of progress. Hence, Daniel made sure to position himself between Roland and the ancient tablets that lay on the table, obscuring Roland's view of them.

"I came to talk to you about something important," Roland said, deciding to get to the point of why he was here, "and it has to do with you. You see, with the arrival of a Goa'uld and his fleet we may only just be scraping an escape when it comes to recovering the artefact and leaving before he arrives…"

"You don't seem the type of people who would have any trouble fighting the Goa'uld," Daniel said, deciding to squeeze some more information out of Roland where possible. It was best he know as much as he did about Roland and his army before actually escaping, hence he could tell the others back at the SGC.

"Yes, but we don't think it's necessary to fight them in this case," Roland explained, "It's too much trouble. And we don't have the heavy duty equipment to do so effectively since it wouldn't fit through the stargate…"

"Heavy duty equipment?" Daniel raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out just how far from the future Roland was. If they really did have the power to destroy Goa'uld ships with some "heavy duty equipment" then such technology would be a vital asset to Earth. That's when Daniel realized that if the technology was from the future then bringing it back to this time was an effective means of altering the timeline.

"Yes, Dr. Jackson, 'heavy duty equipment'," Roland said, "It's back at our main base planet, out of the way of any prying human eyes. This brings me to why I'm talking to you."  
Daniel wasn't sure what Roland was getting to exactly but his tone of voice incited some worry within the archaeologist. He probably had something planned for Daniel, something that the archaeologist wouldn't particularly like.

"You would be a welcome asset to my operation, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, "and I was thinking that maybe you should return with me back to our main base off-world once we have recovered the artefact and are prepared to depart this world. What do you think?"

Daniel didn't like the idea. Sure, it might give him the opportunity to find out more about Roland and why he and his own private army had travelled to the past but he knew that if he went, chances are escape would be impossible. As much as Daniel was curious to see what other future technology Roland had brought back with him from the future, Daniel would prefer to stay here and try his luck with his own escape.

"Ah…Do I have a choice?" Daniel already knew the answer but was asking anyway, more to stall Roland than for any other reason.

Roland shook his head in response, making it certain that Daniel would be coming along with him back to wherever they had their main base.

"But won't that adversely affect the timeline?" Daniel said, deciding to go along with his assumption that Roland and his army were from the future, "because, it's obvious that you meet me for the first time in the distant future. Won't bringing me with you adversely affect the timeline?"

Roland chuckled at the question but Daniel didn't see any joke to it. As far as he could tell, time travel was serious business. Screwing around with a timeline didn't seem like a logical thing to do and Roland had probably already changed it in some way by coming back to the past. No use in changing it again.

"Ah, Dr. Jackson, I knew you would figure things out by yourself," Roland said, "you're right about me and my forces coming from the future but you are wrong when it comes to altering a timeline. In the future, some tests have shown that the timeline is capable of mending some minor discrepancies by itself. Hence, you're going to stay alive until we meet and if I bring you with me back to my base you will somehow escape."

"Tests? How did you 'test' the timeline?" Daniel frowned, sceptical but deciding to stall for time. If he was going to escape he would have to do it son, preferably when Roland wasn't around. However, he still wanted to know about all of this time travel business.

"We sent a few things back in time, just to see what would happen," Roland said, "in one test we sent a medical bag through, full of advanced medical equipment. Nothing changed, so obviously a find like that was either lost or unnoticed. This implies that the timeline can make sure that such unwanted intruders from the past do not adversely alter anything in a major fashion.

"In another test we sent some coordinates to some friends of yours for a particular world. In turn, we sort of 'encouraged' events to happen in a particular fashion…"

Daniel couldn't help but interrupt at this point, unable to quite belief what he was hearing. Roland was quite literally playing with time, something that didn't sound like a good idea. How could he even think of doing such a thing?

"What events?" Daniel asked.

"I don't want to say anything, but let's just say that a group very much the same as you but not quite encounters some problems on a certain planet," Roland replied cryptically, "the coordinates we sent through to the world where they came from actually gave them the idea to visit the planet in the first place."

"I don't follow…"

"It doesn't matter," Roland said without further thought, before adding, "What matters is that you should know that we have influenced the timeline in only minor ways. You may be thinking that my presence in the past has adversely affected it but you are mistaken: I am _supposed_ to be here."

Daniel thought through what Roland had said, still a little confused but deciding that ending the conversation sooner would be for the better. All of this talk about time travel was beginning to annoy him a little. Why couldn't people just stick to their own times? However, there was one thing that still bugged Daniel and he decided to bring it up.

"What's stopping me from killing you when we finally meet in the future?" He asked, expecting an adverse reaction from the man but receiving quite the opposite. Roland sighed, managing a bland smile.

"Many things, Dr. Jackson," Roland said, "such as the knowledge that if you kill me in the future before I've travelled back in time to now, you would be responsible for adversely affecting the timeline. Countless things in the universe could be affected…"

Daniel nodded. That made some sense, although there were still things that bugged him. He didn't think of discussing this time travel business anymore though, it had its fair share of annoying qualities. Roland seemed to be thinking the same thing and decided to get back to the point of why he had come to talk to Daniel in the first place.

"When the time finally comes for us to leave, Daniel," Roland said, "you may not have a choice when it comes to coming with me. The Goa'uld by the time would be well in the process of attacking this complex, thus you would probably be better off in coming with me. Only _time_ will tell, however."

Daniel watched Roland turn around and leave, disappearing around a corner and presumably heading for the stairs back up into the SDIOA facility. Daniel turned back to what he had been doing before, figuring that if he was going to escape he would have to do it before the Goa'uld fleet started launching troops down to the surface. No doubt that they would be after whatever was buried under the mountain and so this facility would be one of their first targets before they went on to enslave the local population.

Daniel decided that he would take what he had learned with him, including the ancient tablets. There were only a few and they were fairly lightweight, thus he stuffed the small tablets into his jacket as well as the notes that he had made that concerned them. Satisfied, he kept the chef's knife he had snatched from the kitchen within his grasp but hidden within his jacket. If he was going to leave he better do it soon, so summing up all of his courage he prepared to make good his escape attempt. If Roland was right and they did meet in the distant future then that meant that they couldn't kill Daniel, no matter what he did. Of course, not everyone would agree with this but Roland certainly would if they were to keep the timeline intact. With this confidence Daniel began with his mentally pre-planned escape, deciding that his first priority would be to retrieve his confiscated GDO which Roland had left in the briefing room up in the SDIOA facility. No doubt it was still there along with all of his other confiscated items, including a Beretta pistol which may come in handy.

Security around the mountain complex didn't seem to be particularly tight the deeper into the complex one went. They were obviously preparing for the inevitable Goa'uld onslaught, something which was especially prevalent since the fleet would be positioning itself in orbit at this very moment. With that as a distraction Daniel figured he could probably get away with using the facility's stargate rather than head out into the rainforest so with some courage he started to leave the Goa'uld built chambers, passing by the technicians who were at work on the particle accelerator cannon as they used it against the force field that protected the ancient chambers. They didn't give Daniel a second glance as he walked past, most figuring that he was heading off to get something to eat or use the bathroom. They couldn't be further from the truth.

* * *

"Well, would you look at that?"

Colonel Jack O'Neill lowered his binoculars, trying to decipher what he had seen. He handed the binoculars to Carter who was lying prone to his left so she could take a look as well. Ahead was the large clearing that lay at the base of the mountain and outside of the mountain complex's entrance. Strangely enough the clearing wasn't at all guarded, however what Jack was worried about were the six large futuristic looking metal containers that had been scattered across the clearing. Standing in wait in each of them were about twenty of the synthetic soldiers, totalling about a hundred and twenty when he counted up the six containers. The soldiers didn't move, standing rigid in their places. They must have been in some sort of stand-by state or something since even when Jack threw a rock at one it didn't move.

Colonel Makepeace shuffled over, his team having kept watch on the road that approached the complex. Makepeace saw the containers and their motionless occupants, trying to figure out just what they were out here for.

"Colonel, there's no sign of any enemy patrols," Makepeace announced, "it's as if they've deserted the region."

Jack didn't quite believe this, taking the containers in front of him as evidence that the enemy was still in operation here. They were probably all inside the complex, although even now he couldn't see any actual human soldiers. The tunnel entrance looked clear, a somewhat different occurrence than what had been here the last time he and Teal'c had investigated this area. There had been a camp set up but even back then the bad guys had been packing it up, heading into the mountain complex.

"What are those things?" Makepeace asked, gesturing towards the containers, "Looks like more of those soldiers that attacked the base…"

Jack nodded in response to the other Colonel's guess. The containers did indeed carry more of the synthetic soldiers and Makepeace could probably see that, hence an answer wasn't really needed. A plan of approach, however, was. There was at least over a hundred metres between them and the entrance to the mountain base: in the time it took to cross that expanse those soldiers could wake up. That would mean they would have over a hundred heavily armed and armoured synthetic soldiers shooting at them, an occurrence that didn't appeal to Jack very much. Then again, getting shot at had always been an annoyance.

"Makepeace, you and your team should keep watch here," Jack said, finally deciding on what to do, "try and radio us if you notice anything strange. Meanwhile, my team and I will head into the complex…"

"If you're underground, how am I going to radio you?" Makepeace asked, making a good point with this particular question. Jack thought for a moment and then shrugged, more or less telling the other Colonel to work it out himself.

"Well, if anything happens and you can't stay here get back to the stargate," Jack said, "if we're right, there's another stargate inside the mountain base which my team can use to escape."

"And if there isn't?" Makepeace asked, frowning.

"Then we're probably screwed," Jack replied bluntly. He received an odd glance from Katelyn who was lying prone to his right, as if she didn't like the outlook he had on what they were about to do. If the human soldiers weren't out here then they would have to be inside the complex. The parked armoured SUVs nearby indicated that there was still life around here somewhere, albeit well hidden.

"I would assume that the non-organic soldiers out here are to defend against a possible attack," Teal'c said, his powers of intuition coming into play again.

"An attack from who? Us?" Jack asked doubtfully, "How many of those guys do they need to protect the base from us?"

Teal'c cocked his eyebrow in his usual manner, giving this a moment's thought before answering.

"Perhaps they expect an attack from someone else," Teal'c said, the consequence of what he was hinting at worrying Jack. How could this operation get anymore complicated? They were facing a technologically superior human enemy that had hordes of synthetic soldiers on its side, what else could happen to make things even more difficult than they already were?

"Like who?"

Teal'c didn't reply, having no answer. He could have speculated but the Jaffa probably didn't see the point in that. Jack didn't wish to spend time speculating on who else could arrive and complicate matters further and so instead decided to get moving. Jack rose to his feet, the rest of the team following suit whilst gathering up their gear.

"What if those soldiers wake up?" Carter asked, seeing that they were about to start for the mountain base's entrance, "then what?"

Jack shrugged. He honestly didn't know, but if Teal'c was right and the soldiers were there in preparation for a possible attack from some other enemy then his team needn't worry. Those soldiers didn't seem like they would be waking up anytime soon, simply standing in place with their weapons held at their chests, waiting for their wake-up call. Hopefully it wouldn't come anytime soon.

"Let's hope they don't," Jack replied simply. He started across the clearing, his M4 rifle held at the ready. The rest of SG-1 followed, Katelyn and Teal'c tagging along behind while Carter walked off to Jack's right. Behind them, Makepeace watched their backs but even he knew that chances are nothing would happen until they were within the mountain complex.

The team cautiously made their way across the clearing, passing the containers and their motionless occupants. Walking past a rigid and motionless armoured soldier gave one an odd feeling, the feeling that at any moment the soldiers could suddenly come to life. Carter, having the curious scientific mind, couldn't help but spend some time examining the technology in the containers that held the soldiers in place. There were control panels and readout screens, the likes that Carter had never seen. Where the high-tech militia got this stuff from was unknown but it was certainly interest to speculate upon it.

"Stay away from them, Captain," Jack said, noticing her interest in the soldiers.

Carter turned around, her concentration broken. She caught up with the rest of the team as they arrived at the tunnel entrance, within lights and crates visible. The tunnel's end disappeared around a corner and up until then it looked empty enough.

"The technology they have is amazing," Carter said, although she had the feeling that Jack wouldn't be too interested, "it's years beyond our own…"

"I've heard that before," Jack said, stopping at the tunnel entrance and peering inside. Behind them, the containers and their occupants remained silent. At least those soldiers hadn't woken up.

Jack decided to quit with the delay, aware that Daniel could probably need their help. Sure, there was a chance he wasn't in here but it was no use not having a look because there was a chance he _was_ in here, somewhere. And perhaps even the leader of the enemy was in residence within the mountain base. If so, it would be quite a decision to take him either dead or alive.

Jack started into the tunnel, Katelyn, Carter and Teal'c following him inside. They went forth cautiously, aware that in the dimly lit confines of the tunnel they could be ambushed. Thankfully no ambush occurred as they made their way further into the mountain, arriving in a brighter lit part of the tunnel. It was here they saw a fenced off area at the end of the tunnel and a pair of elevators to the left, guarded by a few of the armoured soldiers (probably human ones and not synthetics). Immediately Jack signalled his team into cover, the group hiding amongst some crates as they watched the soldiers up ahead. Jack noticed that there was a large, white 'X' marked on the ground some distance from the elevators. He didn't have to wait long to see what it was for, watching with some surprise as the five rings that constituted one half of a ring transporter shot up through the floor and beamed in a pair of the soldiers.

Jack exchanged glances with Carter and the others whilst trying to determine a method of approach. No doubt there was a way to activate the transporter and Jack thought he saw it, some sort of wristband that one of the soldiers who had just beamed up was wearing. It reminded him of the ones on the Jaffa he had fought back on Abydos a few years ago and he decided that getting one of those wrist bands was probably a good idea.

The two men who had beamed up via the ring transporter were holding a small metal crate between them and they began to head down the tunnel with it, talking quietly to themselves. Jack counted the total number of soldiers, including the ones at the elevators nearby: about six, probably no match for them since him and his team had the element of surprise. The only thing to worry about was one of them alerting the rest of the complex to the presence of intruders.

"Teal'c, Lieutenant," Jack said, deciding on what to do and looking at Teal'c and Katelyn, "target the guys by the elevator. On my order, open fire." He glanced at Carter. "Carter, you help me take down the two holding the box."

The team prepared their weapons, keeping amongst the crates in order to present smaller targets. Jack raised his M4, waiting for the moment the two soldiers holding the box were somewhat past the crates he and the team were hiding amongst.

"Fire!"

The team opened fire, catching the soldier's in the room completely off guard. The two holding the box went down under Jack and Carter's combined fire while the four soldiers guarding the elevators went for cover. Katelyn had her Colt pistol out, firing away and taking down one of the soldiers while Teal'c carefully aimed his staff weapon and blasted down one of the others. The remaining two went for the elevators but Jack brought up his rifle and sprayed fire across the two of them, watching them twirl as sparks flew off of their armour, both soldiers falling. Jack's magazine was then clicking on empty so he removed the empty one and loaded in a fresh one, noticing that he was almost out of spare magazines.

With the six soldiers down the team emerged from cover, Jack heading over to one of the dead soldiers who had been holding the metal box. He found the wristband and saw that it was obviously of Goa'uld design with ornate carvings and a large blue button. He took it off the dead man's wrist and started for the white 'X' marked on the floor where the ring transporter was. Chances are the ring transporter would take them straight into the heart of the base where there would be plenty of guards but it would be their best bet.

"Teal'c, Carter," Jack said, "you two take one of the elevators. The Lieutenant and I are going to take the rings into the base. We can meet up again when we're inside."

"Understood, O'Neill," Teal'c replied, he and Carter heading for one of the elevators. Katelyn stood next to Jack, readying her SPAS-12 while looking a little doubtful on the prospect of travelling by the ring transporter.

"Are these things safe?" She asked, standing next to Jack on the white chalk 'X'. Jack shrugged in response, not too sure about that himself.

"As long as you don't get half-beamed up you'll be fine," he said, taking up the wrist band retrieved from the dead soldier. By now Teal'c and Carter were inside one of the elevators, the doors closing in front of them as they started on their way into the underground complex. Jack decided that they had waited long enough and pressed the button on the wristband, the five rings shooting up from the floor around them and enveloping them in a bright light.


	23. First Wave

**Chapter Twenty-one: First Wave**

**Location:** P5H-734

It had begun to rain, albeit in a slight fashion. Light droplets of water pattered onto the already muddy ground, splashing into already existing puddles. Even though it was merely a light shower the clouds above inclined one to think that perhaps more was to come at a much heavier rate later on.

Colonel Frank Kessler made his way towards the weather-beaten tent left behind by SG-8, seeing that the rest of his team were hanging around inside. Nothing at all had happened since their arrival, Kessler and the rest of SG-5 having set up a temporary camp using the one left behind by SG-8. No high-tech militia soldiers arrived to ensure the stargate here was still guarded and things had stayed that way for a few hours now, as if the enemy has forgotten about the existence of this particular stargate. Kessler didn't mind if it stayed that way since it would mean that this mission would be an easy guard job, standing around a clearing in the cold weather and waiting for news from either SG-3 or SG-1.

Radios had a tendency to not work in this region of this particular planet, the signals constantly cutting in and out of audibility. Whatever was causing the interference couldn't have been too far off, perhaps in the direction SG-3 and SG-1 had gone. They had apparently headed off for the main enemy base, some sort of mountain complex left behind by the SDIOA. Kessler had only been told some of what was going on with regards to this planet and their new enemy. No one knew much anyway except that this enemy was slightly more advanced and hard to take down with conventional weapons.

Kessler had never liked the idea of carting a nuclear bomb along with them, giving the device a glance as he stood near the tent. The warhead was apparently enriched with naquadah, thus multiplying its explosive force by at least five times and not one hundred as Jack had thought. The warhead was on a remote controlled cart and was sitting off to the side of the stargate, looking harmless but definitely menacing. He had been assured that there would be no accidental detonations with such technology but still he didn't trust a powerful bomb such as that.

Kessler decided to try and contact one of the other teams again, switching on his radio and speaking into it. However, the only thing he received as a reply was a hiss of static, inclining him to quit trying for now. How were they supposed to keep up to date on mission progress if they couldn't even keep in touch with the other two teams that were part of this mission? Something bad could happen to one of the other teams and they wouldn't even know about it.

The mission for his particular team was to guard the stargate, one of the ways of getting back to Earth. They were sure there was another stargate on the planet, probably under the mountain but even so it could be heavily guarded. This stargate, out in this clearing was perhaps the only reliable means of escape once SG-1 located Daniel. Kessler was somewhat optimistic about them finding Daniel, he had taught himself to be optimistic in all but the grimmest situations. Fortunately, this situation wasn't particularly grim seeing as there were hardly any enemy soldiers around. Whatever had happened in the time since SG-1's last visit here, the enemy had decided to pack up and leave, probably heading back to the mountain complex or wherever else they operated from.

Kessler looked at his watch, seeing as four of the twenty-four hours given to them by General Robards had already past. It was at least a four hour trek through the rainforest to get to the mountain complex in question and would be another four hours back, thus SG-1 and SG-3 should try and start heading back with at least twenty, perhaps nineteen hours to spare. If any of them were overdue then Robards would open the stargate and detonate the nuke remotely, vaporizing this region and the SDIOA's bases here. Kessler didn't think such a move was necessary and nor did anyone else save for Robards who was most obviously trying to cover up his organization's activities here. Whatever it was they had been doing must have been pretty sensitive stuff if Robards had decided to nuke the place.

The rain suddenly began to come down at a slightly faster rate, implying that there was going to be a downpour soon enough. The rest of his team were inside the tent, not really doing anything save for talking and Kessler had earlier decided to stay on watch outside. Now that it had begun to rain a little faster Kessler decided to take shelter in the tent with the others, making his way into the weather-beaten and dirty tent. He had to step over several metal containers that had looked to have been knocked across the floor of the tent for some time, as if somebody had ransacked the entire place.

The three other members of his team sat seated at a table, their weapons leaning against a stack of metal containers nearby. Lieutenant Tyler Dubinsky, the self-styled tech expert of the team, was busy fiddling with a radio in an effort to get through the interference. It was a futile gesture judging by the frustrated look on the Lieutenant's face but he was still trying, regardless of the lack of progress being made.

The group looked up as Kessler entered but soon lost interest in his arrival, returning to what they had been doing earlier. Kessler didn't find the interior of this tent anymore interesting than the dreary landscape outside but it was certainly a step up from standing in the rain.

Major Heffner, one of the slightly older of the three team members, looked up towards Colonel Kessler, a slight trace of curiosity crossing his features.

"Anything interesting outside, Colonel?" Heffner asked.

Kessler shook his head and Heffner looked disappointed, as if expecting there to be at least something worth noting outside. There was nothing but grass, trees, bushes and all the other stuff one could expect to find in a clearing on the edge of a rainforest. It was also raining but Kessler didn't bother to state the obvious.

"When we volunteered for this rescue mission I was sort of expecting there to be more to it," Heffner continued, "now it seems we've been relegated to guard duty. What makes that worse is that no one's bothering to try and get rid of us guards, you know?"

"So you'd prefer to get shot at?" Kessler asked, although he already knew the answer. Heffner was more of a thrill-seeker than anything else, probably one of those types who had joined the Air Force for the prospect of getting into battles.

Captain Johnson, the rather muscular and African-American man of the group, looked up from the deck of cards he had been playing with, looking as bored as the others.

"You're right he would prefer that," Johnson said with a hint of a smile, "however, with me Colonel you don't have to worry about me having some sort of death wish like that. I like this mission just the way it is, even if it is a little dull. A nice and easy guard duty, that's all."

Kessler nodded, although he couldn't quite agree with Johnson. Kessler would prefer it if something even remotely interesting occurred rather than to stand around and not doing anything productive. He suddenly remembered an important little sidenote General Robards had decided to add before their departure, something abut checking in with him every few hours.

"Lieutenant," Kessler asked, getting Lieutenant Dubinsky's attention, "go outside and dial the gate for Earth. You're going to give the General a status report."

"Right, sir," Dubinsky said, standing up and heading outside and into the rain. With that out of the way for now, Kessler decided to get focused on whatever it was they were meant to be doing here. He glanced back out of the tent, watching as Dubinsky jogged through the rain towards the DHD.

"Well, who wants to play some Crazy Eights or something?" Captain Johnson asked aloud, holding up his deck of cards, "I'm always up for a game."

"We're supposed to be guarding the gate, not playing cards," Major Heffner replied with a slight scowl. Johnson just shrugged and began fiddling with his playing cards again.

That was when Dubinsky ran back inside, a frantic look on his face. All heads in the tent turned to face the worried looking Lieutenant, Kessler taking note of how the DHD was only half-dialled. Outside he couldn't make out anything worrying, although through the pitter-patter of rain he could hear the whine of what sounded like an engine, he couldn't tell.

"Sir!" Dubinsky looked towards Kessler worryingly, the DHD outside shutting down as he spoke due to the unfinished dialling sequence.

"What's the problem?" Kessler asked, a little casually he thought. What could possibly be the problem now?

"Outside…there's a…Well…"

"Well what?" Kessler raised an eyebrow, worried by what the Lieutenant was implying. Before anyone else could see anything the back part of the tent blew inwards with a yellow flash, fire eating away at the fabric as an energy blast slammed into a stack of crates. The crates went flying through the smoke and flames and the whole team hit the deck, another blast sizzling across the top of the tent and blowing a hole in a table in the corner.

Amongst the smoke that had formed and the flames that had begun to lick the side of the tent, Kessler looked up and saw that Heffner and Johnson were scrambling for their weapons which were nearby. Kessler un-slung his rifle from around his shoulder as he went into a crouched position, holding it at the ready. Whatever was shooting at them knew that they were sitting ducks inside this tent and so Kessler decided that their best bet was to get outside. The whine of alien aircraft sounded from outside, decreasing in volume as the aircraft headed further out to prepare for another strafing run.

"There are two death gliders outside!" Dubinsky said, coughing amongst the smoke that was wafting from where the blasts had hit the tent, "I was just dialling the gate when they arrived…"

"Death gliders?" Kessler was surprised to hear this, realizing that there had been no mention of death gliders during the briefing before they had come here. Death gliders meant that the Goa'uld were here; why they were was beyond him and when they had arrived was also unknown. However, such a development complicated matters considerably.

Kessler rose to his feet and ran outside, followed by Dubinsky, Heffner and Johnson. Above the clouds were thick and grey and the rain still came down at a fairly steady pace. Puddles had formed all around, the ground squelching underneath the feet of the humans in the clearing. The nuclear warhead sat nearby, making a rather obvious target in the dreary landscape.

Kessler looked around, seeing the distant shapes of the pair of death gliders in question. Both were zooming in for another strafing run from a southerly direction. Kessler could see there was little cover in the immediate vicinity save for near the stargate, thus he decided that their best option was to try and dial out to Earth. The arrival of Goa'uld forces no doubt heralded a much greater problem, one that no one had told him or his team about.

Kessler tried his radio, attempting to reach SG-1 or SG-3. Unsurprisingly the static was greater than ever, radio communications restricted to short range broadcasts only. Frustrated, Kessler brought up his M4 rifle, trying to determine whether or not they should stay and fight or simply leave. Leaving meant abandoning SG-1 and SG-3 to an uncertain fate, one that would probably not be very good, especially since the Goa'uld were now involved.

"Captain!" Kessler shouted, getting Captain Johnson's attention, "start dialling the gate for Earth! We'll cover you!"

Johnson raced over to the DHD just as the pair of death gliders came close enough to open fire, their energy cannons thundering and sending streaks of explosive energy through the air and in the general direction of the four humans spread out near the stargate. Kessler and Major Heffner opened fire with their rifles as the gliders zoomed overhead, bullets pinging off of their armoured fuselages without so much as leaving a dent. Dubinsky stood near Johnson, having removed his GDO to send the authentication signal through to Earth once the stargate was active.

Johnson had begun to dial at the DHD, the stargate whirring into life as the inner wheel steadily spun and the chevrons began to lock. Even though he was working as fast as he could it still took time for the stargate itself to catch up with locking in the symbols that had been dialled in, thus it was taking some time for the wormhole to activate.

Johnson dived to the ground as the death gliders came back around and opened fire, blasts hammering the ground near him in an effort to prevent him from finishing the dialling sequence. He already had however; it was just taking a while for the stargate to carry it out.

Kessler and Heffner returned fire but the gesture was inevitably futile. The armour on a death glider was quite resilient to standard bullets, thus it made an engagement such as this all the more dangerous and frustrating. Kessler had never figured he would have needed to bring an anti-air rocket launcher but obviously such an item would have benefited them immensely.

Finally the stargate activated, sending forth the whirling vortex of water-like energy before stabilizing into the familiar puddle-like event horizon. Dubinsky started transmitting the authentication code via his GDO and as soon as he was done he started running up the steps at the front of the stargate, obviously in a hurry to get out of the dangerous situation. The death gliders were by now back again, opening fire as the four humans started for the stargate's event horizon.

Unfortunately for Dubinsky he happened to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, one of the energy blasts hitting him squarely in the chest. The power of the energy weapons was enough to literally blow him apart, sending tattered pieces of the Lieutenant flying across a wide area.

Kessler tried not to think about the Lieutenant's gruesome fate too much; instead he gathered up his weapons and started a run up the steps. He realized that leaving the nuclear warhead behind may not be such a good idea for it may fall into the hands of the Goa'uld but the situation did not allow him to try and take the bomb through the stargate with him. By now Heffner and Johnson had run on into the wormhole, Kessler bringing up their rear.

The death gliders returned again, this time one of them began hovering in the air about thirty metres behind him, descending so that it was about level with the stargate. Kessler, without thinking too thoroughly about what he should do, turned around and opened fire on the death glider, trying his best to aim for the cockpit. Sparks flew off of the glider's armour but otherwise no damage occurred. The magazine in Kessler's M4 rifle clicked on empty and so he gave up the thought of trying to take the aircraft down with small arms fire. Instead, he lowered his rifle and turned back around, running for the event horizon of the wormhole within the mouth of the stargate. The death glider opened fire just as he did, blasts finding their way into the wormhole and following him back to Earth.

Once Kessler was out of the stargate he dived to the floor, landing painfully on the ramp within the SGC's gate room back on Earth. About three energy blasts followed him out of the stargate, blowing chunks out of the wall ahead. However, he was relieved when the stargate shutdown behind him, leaving him almost breathless on the ramp.

* * *

The underground SDIOA facility had a fairly straightforward layout, being much smaller than the SGC back on Earth. Thus, it wasn't too hard for Daniel Jackson to find his way through the corridors and a few larger rooms to his intended destination. The soldiers and support personnel that remained in the base didn't take much notice of him, too concerned with packing things up and departing to the gate room. It seemed as if a mass evacuation was taking place where all non-combat personnel were departing the planet via the facility's stargate, the remaining soldiers stuck with guard duty while the engineers worked on getting past the force field barrier deep within the mountain.

Daniel cared little about the other people here seeing as all most definitely did not belong here. They were from the future after all and so were "out of their time" as he liked to put it. Time travel was something he tried not to think about too much since it involved quite confusing facts and events that could barely be explained in layman's terms. His mind was on more important things, such as escaping from his captors and this planet.

Daniel passed by several of the armoured soldiers, some of whom managed glances at him through the visors on their helmets but otherwise were not suspicious of him. It was all the better for him then since he could get to the briefing room without much trouble. If his deductions were correct then the briefing room would be the exact same way it had been when he had first been in there, which meant that his items (in particular his GDO) would still be on the table, totally untouched. Of course, he wasn't too sure what he would do once he had gotten hold of his GDO: he could either use the stargate in this facility which would no doubt be under heavy guard or try and escape into the rainforest and try to head back to the stargate out in the clearing. Both options had their fair share of advantages and disadvantages, thus he was sort of undecided on what one to take.

Daniel found his way to the briefing room, finding that the entrance to it was unsurprisingly being guarded. The corridor outside was empty save for him and so Daniel started towards the guard, not too sure on what he would do.

_I'm just making this up as I go along._

Chances are the guard would care little about him, probably more concerned with getting off of the planet and to safety before the Goa'uld fleet arrived. No doubt the fleet was in orbit now, preparing to dispatch its first wave of ground attack craft and Jaffa warriors to go with it. They would go about to reclaim this facility and attempt to enslave the local population, two things that they would probably be able to do quite easily.

The guard at the open doorway peered suspiciously at Daniel as he approached, the archaeologist stopping before him and trying to put on as innocent an act as possible.

"What do you want?" The guard asked, his voice muffled while coming from behind the visor of his helmet.

Daniel pretended to be quite unsure of himself while in fact he knew what he was here for. How he was going to get past this disgruntled future militia soldier was the problem he would have to come up with a way to get rid of.

"I…uh…left something in here earlier," Daniel said, his eyes drifting over the guard's shoulder and into the mostly beige and light brown briefing room beyond. The items he was after were still on the table where Roland had left them, a find that made Daniel slightly more confident in his plans of escape.

"Sorry doc, but the boss told me to keep you out of the briefing room," the guard said, a hint of amusement creeping into his voice, "he thinks you're plotting an escape."

_He thinks that, does he?_

Daniel could see the guard's sidearm kept in a holster at his waist. It was well within reach and the guard didn't seem too concerned about what the archaeologist could possibly do. However, during his couple of years on the stargate program Daniel had picked up a few moves that he had always thought would be unnecessary. Now he was about to be proven wrong in that assumption.

"Plotting an escape? Why would I do that?" Daniel made sure he sounded just as amused as the guard, even managing a convincing false laugh. The somewhat idiotic guard joined in before the pair were laughing whole-heartedly seconds before Daniel lunged and grabbed the butt of the guard's pistol, bringing it out of its holster. The guard emitted a surprised grunt but Daniel didn't stop with his movements, turning the pistol around in his hand and firing from point blank straight into the soldier's chest.

No doubt the noise would alert someone but regardless Daniel caught the guard as he fell, carrying him into the briefing room and dumping him off into the corner, out of sight of the doorway. Once he was down Daniel went for the items on the table, taking the Beretta pistol and the GDO before turning around to head back out of the room.

Part of him was surprised and part of him wasn't when he saw the familiar figure standing in the doorway. He instinctively hid the GDO, knowing that he would need it while dropping both the Beretta pistol and the pistol he had grabbed off of the now dead guard who lay over in the corner.  
Sarah Taylor looked towards Daniel with a hint of satisfaction, realizing that she had just caught the archaeologist in an escape attempt. The sinister look in her eyes told Daniel that she was probably going to enjoy whatever she had planned for him.

"Ah…Sarah…" Daniel tried to remain unfazed, succeeding in a small way but otherwise it was near impossible to be a little put-off by the presence of this somewhat mentally unstable young woman.

Daniel remembered the large chef's knife he had tucked away: all he needed was for her to get a little bit closer. Sure, he would be pushing his luck if he tried to stab her seeing as she was probably trained in close combat. Daniel, on the other hand, wasn't. He was an archaeologist, after all, not a soldier.

"Dr. Jackson, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this," she said, stepping closer and taking a good long look at the archaeologist.

_Come closer…_

She stepped forwards, taking a look at the two pistols that Daniel had dropped upon her arrival and then glancing over at the dead guard who was lying in the corner.

"You know," Daniel began, clutching the hilt of the knife within his jacket as he slowly unsheathed it from its cover, "before you kill me, you should take a look at something I found."  
Sarah raised an eyebrow, suspicious but still curious. She was only a short distance away but it was still not close enough for Daniel, he needed less space between him and his intended target. Sarah was wearing one of the futuristic armour vests yet there was a noticeable soft spot near the shoulders, something that Daniel knew he would have to exploit if he was to get out of this situation in one piece.

"Don't waste my time," Sarah said, scowling as her hand hovered near her holstered sidearm.

"No, really, take a look," Daniel said, "it's just in my hand here…" As soon as she stepped forward he brought the chef's knife out, the metal blade glinting in the light of the room. Sarah was caught off-guard, perhaps having expected such an occurrence but obviously not prepared for it when it came. Daniel lunged forward and the knife went into the "soft" spot in her armour, piercing a few layers of the rubbery under-layer of her outfit in between the top part of her armour vest and her left shoulder. The blade then sank into flesh and Daniel made sure to force it right in, the end of the knife coming out from her back while covered in blood. It looked painful and it definitely was painful, but Daniel felt no remorse as he let the hilt of the blade go. Sarah stumbled back, mouth agape with surprise before looking at him with wide eyes.

Sarah started to yell but Daniel didn't let her finish. Instead, he seized upon the advantage he had gained and grabbed the back of her head, slamming her face into the table with enough force that she was knocked out. With a knife stuck below her shoulder, a blood nose and a few missing teeth Sarah Taylor slumped off of the table and onto the floor, not getting back up.

Catching his breath, Daniel gathered up his Beretta pistol and the futuristic pistol he had grabbed off of the soldier he had dispatched at the doorway. With a pistol in each hand he headed out of the briefing room, growing increasingly confident when it came to his chances of escape. This was only seconds before alarms started sounding throughout the base, leading him to think that somehow someone had found out about the stunt he had pulled in the briefing room. However, he soon came to the conclusion that this wasn't possible since both witnesses were effectively neutralized. Whatever had caused the alarm was perhaps something else, probably something that could further add to the chaos that would aid in his escape.

Whatever was going on it got the attention of a lot of the remaining soldiers, some of which came from around a corner up ahead, effectively blocking his path to the gate room. He turned around, heading into a nearby storage room as they marched past while leaving a few to guard the approach to the gate room. He realized that he wasn't out of trouble yet, especially with these guys in the way.

* * *

"_Sarah…Sarah, are you there? Sarah?"_

Sarah Taylor came to, finding herself lying on the floor of the briefing room. Her left shoulder stung painfully and she could feel some sort of cold sensation in that particular spot. Her nose throbbed painfully and she soon realized that it was bleeding, inclining her to use a sleeve to wipe away the blood that oozed from her nostrils. She could feel some throbbing in her mouth and a quick feel of her teeth with her tongue revealed that a few of her pearly whites were missing.

What had happened to lead to her receiving these injuries came flooding back, along with an intense rage that threatened to sent her into a blind fury. Daniel Jackson. It had been him, no doubt. She could remember confronting him, trying to figure out how she would kill him when she had let her guard down and he had thrust a rather large chef's knife into her…

She sat up and looked down at herself, finding that yes; there was the handle of a chef's knife jutting out of her front. She grabbed the end and gritting her teeth she pulled, having to stop when the pain became excruciating. Taking a deep breath she started again, slowly easing the blade of the knife out of her chest. She screamed as the pain shot through her body and on numerous occasions she had to stop, only able to ease it a few centimetres at a time.

"_Damn it Sarah, respond…"_

She realized her radio was talking to her and she flicked a switch on it whilst trying to catch her breath from the pain that she had received from trying to pull the knife out of her chest.

"What is it?" She asked, short of breath but trying her best to sound unfazed.

It was Roland's voice on the other end and he sounded concerned at the late response. Right now flashing red lights were on throughout the base, implying that something rather important was occurring.

"_I need you down here…We've managed to disrupt the force field enough to allow people through…"_

She raised an eyebrow although Roland could not see her.

"You're in the ruins?"

"_Yes, yes we are!"_ Roland exclaimed happily, sounding excited and no doubt relieved to have finally made some progress on getting through the force field.

"Why do you need me?"

"_I need you and your team to guard the ruins from the intruders that are inside the base,"_ Roland explained, _"there is still much work to be done and it may not be carried out as efficiently without your help."_

Sarah rolled her eyes. Roland was always the flattering type towards her but she didn't think much of it. She did, however, want to get back at Daniel Jackson since he had left her with a foreign object stuck in her chest. It was perhaps best to leave it in there for now until she could get some proper medical attention.

"I understand," Sarah replied simply, before adding, "just one other thing: Dr. Jackson's trying to escape…"

"_Forget about Dr. Jackson," _Roland said bluntly, sounding unconcerned with the matter of the escaping archaeologist. Sarah would have preferred to find Daniel Jackson in order to split his skull open but when Roland told you to do something it was best to do it without complaining.

"I'll be right down," Sarah said, agitated at all that had just happened. She would find Daniel Jackson, even if it was the last thing she did. She was thinking of impaling him with a knife or something, just to return the favour of what he did to her back to him. However, Roland needed her for much more important matters so she decided to go and see to these matters before returning her attention back to the escaped archaeologist.


	24. Hard Boiled

**Chapter Twenty-two: Hard Boiled**

**Location: **P5H-734

It was an odd sensation, getting broken up into your component molecules and then reconstructed in a different location. It only lasted a few seconds though, thus the tingling and brilliant white flash didn't last long.

The ring transporter was a fairly reliable means of transportation, capable of going across great distances such as from a ship in orbit to the planet below. This time around it brought Colonel Jack O'Neill and First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine from the surface straight into the bowels of the mountain facility underneath. The rings came down from the ceiling of a large room filled with surprised looking soldiers and auxiliary personnel, some of which were manning computers in preparation of purging the facility's databanks.

Most of them weren't too suspicious, having witnessed others of their group beaming in and out of the facility using the ring transporter. Even Roland had commented that the elevators were "for squares" and so had encouraged the use of the ring transporter, installed by the SDIOA personnel who had once run the base and who had probably stolen it from the Goa'uld. To the soldiers and technicians in the room, the arrival of another few soldiers back into the base was no surprise.

This time, however, it wasn't just another few of their own soldiers. Instead, there were two distinctly different people with weapons raised who appeared amongst the white flash as the rings teleported them into the room before shooting back up into the ceiling.

Colonel Jack O'Neill had his M4 rifle raised in preparation for what he had guessed would be a room full of hostiles. He had been correct, waiting those tense few seconds as the five rings shot back up into the ceiling from around him and Lieutenant Raine. The room looked to be a control room of sorts, filled with cubicles and computers as well as armoured soldiers and technicians manning the computers. None seemed too concerned until the transporter rings were up and out of the way, allowing full view of the two people who had materialized in the room.

Jack took a deep breath, roughly estimating that he and the Lieutenant were effectively surrounded. The soldiers began to raise their rifles or go for their side-arms depending on what they were doing and what they were loaded out with. Jack didn't think much of letting them open fire nor did he think much of surrendering so without much further thought on the matter he pulled his rifle's trigger.

Katelyn, who was crouched next to him, swivelled around and brought up her SPAS-12 shotgun in order to cover Jack's rear from possible attack. She started firing, pumping the shotgun after each shell that she fired, blasting down a pair of the soldiers who were across the room. The buckshot also tore into the walls and send dust flying, knocking over the flimsy separating sheets between each cubicle.

Jack raked automatic rifle fire across the hostiles in front of him, cutting three of the soldiers down which resulted in a flurry of sparks from the bullets slamming into the armour. Most were deflected but some managed to find the softer spots on the suits of armour the soldiers were wearing, making them twitch and twirl slightly where they stood before falling to the floor. Chunks flew from the wall ahead and technicians and engineers went for cover, a few going for their side-arms while others just tried to run away. Those that went for weapons were first to be taken care of when it came to Jack's priorities in this firefight, making sure to adjust his aim and spray rifle fire over a few of the armed technicians. They were easier to take down than an armoured soldier and thus weren't too much of a threat until they had pulled out their pistols.

Katelyn had paused to start reloading her shotgun, just as a pair of the armoured enemy soldiers charged in through the door across from her. She stopped reloading and went for her Colt pistol, pulling it forth from it holster with surprising speed and in one fluid movement. She opened fire, pulling the trigger again and again until the magazine was empty. Sparks flew off of the armour on the enemy soldiers and one fell down, presumably dead. The other went to raise his rifle but Katelyn dropped the Colt pistol and brought her shotgun back up, loaded with a few shells which were probably enough to do the job. She fired twice in quick succession, the force of the shotgun blasts knocking the soldier backwards and into the wall behind him where he slumped down, leaving a trail of blood on the wall behind him.

The magazine in Jack's M4 clicked on empty seconds before a few more soldiers entered the computer room through a doorway up ahead. The three armoured enemy soldiers raised their rifles and opened fire, bullets zipping through the air and slamming into the floor near him. Jack dived to the floor, knowing he didn't have time to reload his rifle. He dropped it and went for his side-arm, a Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol that used .45 ACP ammunition, a step above a standard Beretta 9mm pistol. He opened fire and didn't stop firing, watching as one of the soldiers fell while the other two ran for cover, flipping over a few desks to form a barricade. The lull in the enemy fire gave him enough of an opportunity to get up and go for the nearest desk, pushing it onto its side and sending the computer, keyboard and other items that were on top of it crashing onto the floor.

Katelyn rolled to the side as the two soldiers turned their rifles in her direction, their guns thundering loudly through the large computer room. Several technicians and engineers were running, preferring to not get involved. By now sirens were sounding throughout the base and red lights were flashing, casting eerie glows over the room and the corridors beyond. Jack crouched behind the flipped desk, keeping his head down as he reloaded his M4 rifle and Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol in turn, holstering the pistol as he brought up his rifle and took aim at one of the soldiers across the room. This particular soldier was now blind-firing, barking into the radio that was clipped near his shoulder for backup. His arms held the rifle above the desk, carelessly firing away and raking fire across the barricade.

Jack was surprised when the wood of the desk did little to stop the bullets that were fired towards him, each round shooting straight through the wood. He dived to the floor as splinters of wood showered over him, leading him to realize that he was in a bit of a sticky situation. Of course, not one to simply play along with the situation, Jack began to crawl around the desk, watching as another three soldiers barged into the room through the doorway ahead.

_Maybe coming straight in with the transporter wasn't such a good idea_, he thought. He checked his spare magazines for his rifle, finding that he had no more save for the one loaded in the rifle at this time. Figuring he could get hold of some superior weapon later, he edged around the side of the desk and took careful aim at the arms of the soldier who was blind-firing over the top of the makeshift barricade. A single bullet was enough to send a spray of blood flying from one of the soldier's hands, sending the rifle flying from his grip and clattering onto the floor out of reach. The soldier shouted with pain and stumbled behind the barricade, clutching his wounded hand.

Katelyn had turned her attention to the soldiers up ahead, switching her SPAS-12 shotgun to a semi-automatic setting which eliminated the need to pull the pump back after every shot. She resumed fire, firing shot after shot which blasted away chunks of the overturned desks the enemy soldiers were crouched behind. One of the soldiers had his head only partially exposed but this was more than enough, a shower of sparks and blood heralding his death from several pieces of buckshot.

Jack kept his usual battle calm as he opened fire on the line of flimsy overturned desks the enemy were using as cover. The wood did little to stop the bullets but the bulky blue-grey armour the enemy soldiers were wearing made up for it, deflecting most rounds that connected with them. One of the other soldiers fell though and the remaining three came up, rifles firing.

Jack kept his head down as splinters of wood, clouds of dust and sparks erupted around him and showered upon him. He was lucky these bad guys had such terrible aim though, allowing him to crawl back into only moderate safety behind the overturned desk in front of him. He took the time to check the magazine loaded in his weapon, finding that there were only a few rounds left. Discarding the rifle he took out his Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol again, waiting for the firing to stop before he decided to try anything.

Katelyn, meanwhile, had ducked behind some filing cabinets as bullets flew her way, blowing holes in the weak metal of the cabinets. She seemed to be calm though, reaching for one of the M67 grenades that were clipped to her vest. She pulled out the pin and casually threw it around the cabinets, sending it in an arcing throw that landed it behind the barricades and amongst the soldiers.

Immediately the soldiers stopped firing and scrambled, the grenade detonating a few seconds later. Two of the soldiers were tossed aside by the explosion like a pair of ragdolls while one managed to make it out of the room through the open doorway nearby. Jack stood up, pistol at the ready as he scanned the mess that the computer room had become. The smoke from the grenade explosion wafted around the barricades and near the bodies of the fallen soldiers, splinters of wood and wrecked computers having been scattered throughout the room by the blast.

Katelyn came out of cover, looking at the handiwork caused by her well-placed grenade and then grinning at Jack. Jack, on the other hand, only nodded. He didn't think much of what had just happened; he was just relieved he hadn't been shot.

"That was intense," Katelyn said simply, and loudly. Jack could tell that she had enjoyed it, judging by the wild look in her eyes and the matching expression on her face.

The surviving soldier suddenly appeared in the doorway up ahead, rifle raised and probably looking for vengeance for his dead buddies. Jack brought up his pistol and started shooting, pounding round after round into the soldier without giving him a chance to open fire. The soldier fell about seven rounds later, stumbling backwards and crumpling into a heap on the floor. Unfazed, Jack lowered his pistol and glanced towards the Lieutenant, noticing that she was still grinning wildly.

"Nice work," Katelyn said. She started to reload her shotgun, pulling the pump back when she was done.

Jack stepped over to one of the dead soldiers, picking up the bulky high-tech rifle that had belonged to the now deceased enemy soldier. He checked the large drum magazine, seeing that it was about half-loaded. He picked up a few spares from the soldier's corpse, satisfied with the sturdiness of the weapon. No doubt that this would do a better job of penetrating the armour these soldiers wore without expending so much ammunition. No wonder he had practically run out of rounds for his M4.

Surveying the room again, Jack tried to figure out where they should go next. Their top priority was to find Daniel and he didn't seem to be in this particular room, thus a further search was needed. The alarms had ceased by the red lights still flashed, indicating that these bad guys knew that he and Katelyn were here. No doubt more would be on their way to investigate.

Jack could see that there had been a rather large operation here by the sheer effort that had gone into building this underground facility. No wonder General Robards wanted to nuke the place since an enemy force had taken over it and probably had access to all the information on the SDIOA they wanted. This still didn't explain what the SDIOA had been doing here and who exactly this high-tech army was and why they were here. Of course, Jack was quite confident that those questions would be answered soon enough.

Jack's radio crackled into life, the reception weak and hissing with interference. However he could still make out the voice speaking through it and a brief moment's thought lead him to realize that it was Colonel Makepeace.

"_Colonel O'Neill, can you hear me, over? Can you hear me, Colonel?"_ Makepeace's always stern voice had an edge of worry to it and s Jack thought it right to reply.

"This is Colonel O'Neill, I can hear you," Jack replied, signalling to Katelyn to check out what was past the doorway ahead. She went on to do so, shotgun held at the ready.

"_Colonel, there's a problem out here,"_ Makepeace replied, _"those synthetic soldiers out here are waking up."_

Jack frowned although Colonel Makepeace couldn't see him. There were a hundred or so synthetic soldiers out in the clearing by the entrance to the mountain base, all of them standing rigid in some sort of stand-by mode. If they were waking up then that would spell trouble for all of them.

"All of them?"

"_Yes, Colonel, all of them,"_ Makepeace continued. He paused for a moment, another male voice audible in the background. That voice sounded worried.

Jack considered their options, realizing that there was no chance in hell that he and the rest of SG-1 would be able to escape the mountain base through the way they had come in. That would mean that this assumption of there being a second stargate on this world better mean that this second stargate was inside this facility, otherwise they would all be in trouble. Jack figured that Makepeace and the rest of SG-3 were best off leaving before trouble sparked up between them and the synthetic soldiers.

"Makepeace, take your team and get back to the stargate," Jack said. Him and Makepeace were of the same rank but Jack had been placed in charge of the mission overall, thus he could order Makepeace around along with everybody else.

"_Got it, Colonel,"_ Makepeace replied, _"we'll take one of the SUVs left out here. All of them still have the keys in the ignition since I guess they weren't expecting any intruders."_

"Do whatever you have to do," Jack replied. There was the sound of weapons fire through the radio, sparking an immediate reaction from Jack.

"Makepeace! What's going on?"

"_A group of them found us…don't worry Colonel, I and my team will get out of here alive. You just focus on finding Dr. Jackson and trying to get to the bottom of who the hostiles here are."_

"Good luck," Jack replied, although he wasn't too sure about his luck at the moment. He switched off the radio, ending the conversation before he returned his attention to the room ahead. It seemed that he and the rest of SG-1 were stuck here until they found a way out, whether it is through another stargate or some alternate way out of the base.

Jack approached Katelyn who stood near the doorway, watching the darkened corridor outside.

"What happened?" She asked as he approached, curious to know the full situation.

"SG-3's bailing," Jack replied bluntly, "Those robots outside…they're waking up."

"So we're on our own?" Katelyn asked, not too concerned but sounding a little surprised.

"Well, unless SG-5 shows up to save the day then yes, we're on our own," Jack said, unable to help be a bit sarcastic. SG-5 were well out of reach and were probably going to depart soon enough anyway.

Jack noticed over in the corner of the computer room that one of the computers was still on and intact, unlike all the other ones. Stepping over a few dead bodies, Jack made his way towards it, thinking that they may be able to get a god idea of what to expect to find inside this facility from the information on the computer.

Jack found that several screens were open on the computer, all of them large directories full of folders and separate files. Someone had been preparing to erase all of them but had been interrupted by the arrival of him and the Lieutenant. A brief glance at some of the documents revealed that they had something to do with the research being undertaken here. He read through a few of the files on the computer, discovering that the facility was built on top of some ancient ruins which had in turn an adjoining Goa'uld facility that hadn't seen use for a thousand years. The other documents were password protected and so Jack couldn't check them for any other information. What he had found out though was more than enough to start piecing the puzzle together of why the bad guys were here and who they were.

If these people were intent on digging up ancient ruins then maybe they needed someone to help with the ancient writings they would uncover. No doubt Daniel had been put to work on this sort of thing and no doubt that these ruins were the ideal place to start searching for him.

Jack turned to Katelyn who looked over at him expectantly, able to tell that he had just found out something important.

"Anything new?" She asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied simply, taking a brief pause before continuing as he thought over how they would go about to search for Daniel, "turns out there's some old ruins that the base was built over, as well as a Goa'uld facility. Seems that the bad guys here are looking for something."

"And you think that's the best place to search for Daniel?" Katelyn asked, able to see where he was going with this new information.

"It's our best bet," Jack said, "and we'll probably have better luck trying to work out what the bad guys are after. From memory, ancient ruins contain some fairly old relics. Maybe one of them caught their interest?"

Katelyn started out of the room and into the corridor, checking if it was clear of hostiles before motioning Jack to follow. The corridor was dark save for the pulsating red lights that cast eerie glows over everything although the corridor itself seemed reminiscent of those back at the SGC but in shades of brown and beige.

"So, which way to the ruins?" Katelyn asked.

Jack thought about this for a moment, not too sure on just where to go. He assumed that if the facility was built above them that a staircase or an elevator would be a good start.

"Down, I think," he replied.

* * *

The elevator pinged loudly upon arrival in the first of the few sublevels of the SDIOA facility, the doors sliding open to reveal the two unauthorized occupants inside.

Captain Samantha Carter and Teal'c surveyed the room outside of the elevator, taking note of how it appeared to be some sort of large warehouse type area. Aisles of shelves lined the room, most of them occupied by metal and wooden crates of differing shapes and size. Ahead was a door into the rest of the facility and unsurprisingly it was guarded by a trio of armoured enemy soldiers who were yet to realize that there were two intruders in the room with them.

Carter considered on trying to neutralize these hostiles in a stealthy manner but before she could tell Teal'c of her plan alarms sounded throughout the facility, the lights dimming and being replaced by pulsating red ones which in turn cast an eerie glow across the room. Carter assumed that Jack and Katelyn had already set about shooting the place up, perhaps providing ample distraction for her and Teal'c to get through the facility without much trouble.

The three guards up ahead did ready their weapons but didn't head off, instead standing at the ready where they were. They were probably going to stay guarding this room no matter what happened. Well, there were only three of them and three didn't seem like a troublesome amount when it came to these guys.

"Teal'c, take the right," Carter said, the Jaffa nodding in acknowledgement before he set off along the right side of the room. Carter would go down the left, getting the group of three hostiles from both sides. None of the three guards knew of their presence just yet but they would soon enough.

Carter headed down the aisle furthest on the left, passing all sorts of items that had been stored on shelves ranging from crates of non-perishable foods to what looked to be captured Goa'uld weapons such as zat'ni'katels. This reminded Carter of how ineffective ordinary bullets were against these armoured hostiles so she took out her zat'ni'katel while slinging her rifle around her shoulder, making sure to put the zat'ni'katel into its ready-to-fire position.

Carter had never been to sure about this rescue mission but she wanted to find Daniel as much as Jack did. They all knew the risk involved, from the technologically superior enemy to the fact that if they were late the nuke they brought with them would detonate, destroying the whole region and the nearby town. Time was against them it seemed so working as quickly as possible to find Daniel was necessary.

Carter edged around one of the shelves in the pulsating red light, noticing that Teal'c was in position and readying his staff weapon. The three guards ahead had seemed to calm down a little, having worked out that the situation that had set off the alarms wasn't anywhere nearby. With their guard down they would make easier targets, although there was a chance that the ensuing weapons fire would get the attention of others outside the room.

Regardless, Carter fired two shots in quick succession which in turn hit the nearest soldier. Blue energy coursed through him and he twitched and crumpled to the floor, dead. The other two guards raised their weapons but Teal'c fired his staff weapon before they had a chance to return fire, blasting both of the guards down with a pair of well placed shots.

With the three guards down Carter and Teal'c were free to head to the door. However, before they got there the door itself opened and immediately Carter and Teal'c had raised their weapons.

The figure behind didn't look like any of the soldiers and seemed surprised to see the pair, stopping and putting up his hands. In the darkness it was hard to tell just who it was but Carter wasn't willing to take any chances. Perhaps this was one of the support personnel here trying to make an escape? If so he might have some information on just what the enemy was doing here and where Daniel was.

"Step into the light so that we may see you," Teal'c ordered without any hint of uncertainty. The figure stepped through the doorway and into the room, the pulsating red lights casting a glow on his face. Upon seeing who it was Carter and Teal'c relaxed.

It was Daniel and he looked dirty and tired, his jacket stained with mud. He also smelt of mud as well but that was besides the point. In each of his hands he clutched a pistol, indicating that he was already well on a path to escape.

"Sam? Teal'c?" Daniel said with some surprise when he saw who the two holding him at gunpoint were. He lowered his raised arms and relaxed considerably, taking a deep breath. Carter and Teal'c lowered their weapons.

"Daniel Jackson, it is good to see that you are still alive," Teal'c said in his usual blunt manner, "we have come here to rescue you."

"Yeah, I can see that," Daniel said, frowning, "but where's Jack and the Lieutenant?"

Carter shrugged. Those two were probably off in some other part of the facility, attempting to cause as much trouble as possible. It was recommended they regroup and this was what Carter intended to do to ensure that all members of the team were safe and ready to go.

"They used another means to infiltrate this facility," Teal'c said, "and we are to regroup with them as soon as possible."

"Well, when we do we can just use the stargate in this facility to get back to Earth," Daniel said. Carter raised an eyebrow, having not been quite expecting this assumption to have been proven correct.

"There's a stargate in this facility?" She asked, wanting to be certain.

Daniel nodded in reply.

"I've seen it and it works fine," Daniel explained, "turns out it's the stargate the bad guys here used to come to this planet. And there are a few other things I found out as well, like who the leader of this army is."

Carter could tell that Daniel was genuine in what he was saying, knowing that he had no reason to make these things up. They had some time to spare and they would be relatively safe in here unless some other guards stumbled inside.

"His name is Roland Halverson," Daniel said, "he talked to me and I managed to find out a few things. Some of it's a bit unbelievable but it does make sense the more you think about it.

"Roland and his private army are from the future," Daniel said, noticing the sceptical glances both Carter and Teal'c gave him. He nodded, knowing full well how hard it was to believe. "I don't know from how far into the future, though…"

"Are you sure?" Carter asked, "This Roland guy could be making it up…"

Even though she was sceptical it did make sense, especially since she and the rest of SG-1 had travelled in time (by accident) only a few weeks earlier, back to the year 1969.

"Think about it, Sam," Daniel said, "we travelled in time so why can't anyone else? If they're from the future maybe they developed a way to predict solar flares so they could use the stargates to travel in time? Thing is, the presence of future travellers into the past may have had an adverse effect on the timeline. Roland assured me that he had taken this into account but I'm still worried about it…"

There was a pause as each of them digested these facts, Daniel continuing with his explanation a few seconds later. Carter could see that the logic was there, she just didn't like the idea of having her destiny altered by some time travelling interlopers.

"He seems to have a personal vendetta against the SDIOA," Daniel said, "that's why he's come back to this time to stop them from doing something…I don't know what, though. The reason he took control of this base is because it's built on some ancient ruins…Apparently there's something down there he wants."

"What?" Carter asked, realizing the extent of what Daniel was saying. Teal'c didn't seem so perturbed but then again he was never really perturbed by much.

"I'm not sure but it's probably some sort of powerful artefact," Daniel said, "and I think it's vital we stop him from getting it, otherwise the timeline may become even more altered from its original state."

Carter nodded, although her scientist side wanted to know more about all of this. What other ramifications would Roland's arrival in the past have? Only time would tell, it seemed.

"If Roland is altering the timeline, would he not be altering himself in the process, if he is from the future that he says he is from?" Teal'c asked, still a tad sceptical. Daniel shrugged, trying to think this all through. When it came to time travel things got very confusing indeed.

"I don't know," Daniel said, "there's a chance that all of this is _meant_ to happen. Our trip back to 1969 didn't change anything; rather it fulfilled what was supposed to happen. Maybe Roland's presence in the past is the same sort of thing, in the sense that his trip to this time is supposed to happen and will fulfil the timeline without changing anything…This is all just speculation on my part, though." Daniel was a little breathless now, having been speaking a bit too fast.

There was a pause as the three of them thought through all of this. They all knew that most of it was merely speculation though and that none of them could be certain.

"Oh yeah, there's one other thing we have to worry about," Daniel said, remembering an important fact, "there's a Goa'uld fleet on its way to this planet. It's probably in orbit by now…"  
"Goa'uld fleet?" Carter asked, worried, "you're kidding, right?"

Daniel shook his head, making it certain to everyone that he was not kidding. He didn't look too pleased with the development either.

"I think it's Khnum, the System Lord responsible for bringing the local population of this planet here from Earth several thousand years ago," Daniel said, "according to what I found out, it seems that Ra put a price on his head about a thousand years ago and so Khnum was forced to go on the run, leaving this planet behind and its people to fend for themselves. I think, with Ra gone, he's able to come out of hiding in order to reclaim his territory."

"I have heard of Khnum," Teal'c said, Carter and Daniel turning to look at him. Teal'c could see he had their full attention and so continued, searching his memories for any useful information.

"He is one of the few System Lords who decided to challenge Ra's supremacy. His attack on Ra's power base failed and hence a bounty was placed on him. He has obviously remained on the run ever since until the death of Ra only a few years ago…"  
"So Jack and I are indirectly responsible for this?" Daniel asked, although he already knew the answer.

Teal'c nodded.

"It is wise to assume that is so," he replied, "and if there is indeed a powerful alien artefact in the ruins you have mentioned then no doubt Khnum's first priority will be to find it. That means he will dispatch troops to take over this complex." He paused, before turning to Daniel. "How long do you think we have until his forces arrive?"  
Daniel shrugged, not at all sure. The fleet was definitely in orbit so it was safe to assume that the arrival of Khnum's armies of Jaffa would be fairly soon.

"Not long," Daniel replied.

"Then we must find Jack O'Neill and the Lieutenant as soon as possible," Teal'c said, "and then we must leave."

"What about the alien artefact?" Daniel asked.

"Teal'c's right," Carter said, "we can't stay for long. Our best option is to find Jack and the Lieutenant before leaving; otherwise we're just going to end up with a few hundred Jaffa on our tails."

"So we're just going to let Roland get hold of this alien artefact and whatever powers it has?" Daniel asked, a little annoyed, "I don't like the sound of that idea."

"Perhaps we can eliminate Roland on the way?" Teal'c suggested, "If he is after the artefact then chances are he will still be inside this facility. He will most likely use the second stargate you spoke of to escape, so it is possible that we will encounter him there."

There was a good chance of that happening although if it did Daniel didn't have any clue on what he would do. Was it better to capture or kill Roland Halverson? Perhaps they were meant to do one of them or perhaps the timeline dictated that he was meant to escape? There was no way to know for sure but Daniel had the feeling that any of the three options would have ramifications on the timeline. How they would know what had changed was impossible to determine but already Daniel could feel that some things weren't right, as if Roland's sheer presence in the past had altered something. If it had it was impossible to tell whether it was for the good…or for the worse.


	25. Ruins

**Chapter Twenty-three: Ruins**

**Location: **P5H-734

The base's lighting had been on the flashing red alert setup for a while now even though there weren't many soldiers heading off to find out what the alert was about. In fact the entire facility was eerily quiet, the alarms having stopped ringing a while ago. Some of the enemy soldiers had taken up defensive positions in some of the corridors the further one went deeper into the base, although most of these defensive positions were easily overcome by the well equipped pair who had been finding their way through the corridors down to the deepest bowels of the base.

They had come across a stairwell earlier and had cleverly used it to reach the lowest level where several laboratories were located, occasionally getting into a skirmish with some of the leftover soldiers who had not yet left through the stargate. Whatever it was that these guys planned to find down there, Colonel Jack O'Neill was determined to stop them. He wasn't too sure what they were after but it was probably something important, something that would do better to be in good hands than the hands of a bunch of high-tech killers. The further he and Katelyn Raine went the more guards there were, although there were often not more than three at a time. It didn't take much to kill them, especially since Jack had one of their high-powered automatic rifles, firing rounds that had little trouble penetrating the armour these bad guys wore.

Passing the laboratories, Jack took note of how the walls began to become less of the refined stone and more of the rough, natural underground sort of thing that would have been what was left when the base had been first dug out. Adjoining rooms became less frequent until eventually all the corridors lead to the one large room, an adjoining corridor heading down into what looked to be a Goa'uld styled room.

Jack should have known better than to think the way would be undefended, though. There were about four guards at the entrance of the corridor, standing at the ready and probably expecting intruders. Jack had been thinking of using the darkness to his advantage but just as he was considering his options the lights reverted back to their normal bright and white selves, the alert probably over.

Katelyn didn't hesitate to take action as they entered the room in plain view of the guards. She dived behind a stack of metal containers as the four soldiers opened fire, Jack heading off to the other side of the room as his combat instincts kicked in. Bullets slammed into the walls near him but he managed to dive behind some crates before the shooters could adjust their aim appropriately. By now Jack was tired of all the shooting and simply wanted to find whatever it was these bad guys were after, as well as get some answers as to who they were and where they had come from.

Katelyn leaned around the crates and fired a few shots with her SPAS-12 shotgun, one of the soldiers getting sent backwards by the force of the shots before hitting the wall a short distance behind him. The others briefly stopped firing to duck behind their barricades, Jack seizing this opportunity to lean from around his cover and strafe rifle fire across the barricades. There was a spray of blood as a round found its way into the "soft spot" on one of the soldier's armour suits, right at the neck. This particular soldier crumpled to the floor, bleeding profusely. Jack ducked back behind the crates as the remaining two soldiers returned fire, sparks flying as bullets slammed into the metal containers near his head. Jack tried not to flinch, realizing just how close they were getting to hitting him. The last thing he needed was to get shot.

Katelyn removed another one of her grenades, lobbing it around the crates she was crouched behind and towards the barricade the two remaining enemy soldiers were taking cover behind. The grenade landed at the base of the barricade, detonating seconds later and blowing away the metal barricade and the two soldiers behind it. With the room clear of hostiles, Jack and Katelyn were able to head out from cover and start on their way towards the descending corridor.

Jack didn't know what to expect down in the Goa'uld built facility, although it was safe to assume there would be more bad guys. There were probably a lot more, there to guard whatever it was that was being kept in the ruins down there. That would mean that he and Katelyn were nearing some answers to the many questions that this whole mission had raised, such as who the high tech soldiers were and where they were from. Of course, Jack was _hoping_ the answers he wanted were down there otherwise this whole thing would have been quite fruitless in the end.

"You ready for this, Colonel?" Katelyn asked, as they started down the descending corridor and into the Goa'uld built facility. Jack shrugged, not too interested in whatever it was the Lieutenant was saying. He could see that she was smiling, probably looking forward to more shootouts.

"Ready for what?" Jack asked, "To get shot at again? Yeah, sure, I'm ready…"

Katelyn began to reload her SPAS-12 as they headed down the descending corridor, ending up in a corridor walled with shades of gold and brown with pillars covered in ancient hieroglyphics. No doubt the Goa'uld had built this place since the interior design matched their preferences and had that particular Goa'uld flair that Jack had sort of become familiar with over the last two years. The difference here was that there were no Goa'uld around, sort of a relief but only slightly since it meant there would be plenty more of those armoured enemy soldiers around here.

Jack's radio crackled into life, the signal surprisingly clear compared to the one he had received from SG-3 earlier. It occurred to him that it was probably because broadcasting from within these facilities to someone else who was also in them wasn't as affected by the interference than if you were transmitting from outside. He was relieved to hear Carter's voice since it meant that she was at least alright and no doubt Teal'c would be as well.

"_Colonel, can you hear me?"_ Carter's voice was tinny and with some slight static but otherwise was quite clear.

"Loud and clear, Captain," Jack said, stopping in his tracks. Katelyn stopped as well, keeping an eye on the corridor ahead for any movement while listening in on the conversation.

"What's the news?" Jack asked, not expecting much to have happened in the short time that they had been in these facilities.

"_We found Daniel sir,"_ Carter said, _"he's alright, but he found out a few things that I thought I would tell you."_

Jack raised an eyebrow, relieved to hear that Daniel was fine but the Colonel was also sort of curious as to what information Daniel had come up with.

"Go ahead, Captain," Jack said, able to tell from the worry evident in Captain Carter's vice that it wasn't very pleasing information.

"_Turns out there's a Goa'uld fleet on its way here,"_ Carter said, _"Daniel thinks it's Khnum, the System Lord responsible for bringing humans to this world some five thousand years ago. We can't be sure, but it's safe to assume the fleet's already in orbit and that the first wave of soldiers is on its way here."_

Jack cursed under his breath, realizing what this meant. The last thing they needed was a whole Goa'uld fleet on their tail but it seemed like that's what would be happening. He exchanged glances with Katelyn, seeing that the Lieutenant looked only a little bit worried when it came to this development.

"_Teal'c, Daniel and I are on our way to the stargate within this facility. We'll wait for you and the Lieutenant, but we need an idea of where you are…"  
_A stargate in this facility? Well, that was a welcome development after finding out about the Goa'uld fleet on its way here. Escape would be easier when the stargate they could use was in these facilities.

"The Lieutenant and I are in these Goa'uld built facilities, underneath the SDIOA ones," Jack said, looking around the corridors, "we found out that those high-tech soldiers are after something inside some ancient ruins and we intend to find out what it is."

There was a pause as Carter considered Jack's response.

"_Daniel says that you're likely to run into the leader of these soldiers, Roland Halverson, when you're down there,"_ Carter explained, _"and if you intend on getting rid of him, try to make it quick. Khnum's forces could be here at any minute."_

Jack nodded before stopping when he realized that Carter couldn't see him. If the leader of the enemy forces was down here then perhaps they could capture him, no doubt he would know all sorts of information that would help them find out more about this high-tech force of soldiers. Jack considered their options, figuring that the guy in the different outfit he had encountered during their last trip here had been the leader. He hadn't looked so tough then and it was doubtful he had changed much in the space of twelve hours so Jack was sure he could take him on. After all, he had taken on Goa'uld System Lords and won so what trouble could an ordinary human man be? Chances are he would have all sorts of elite bodyguards but that was something Jack and Katelyn would have to deal with when the time came.

"_We'll be waiting at the gate," _Carter said.

"And where's that?" It occurred to Jack that he didn't actually know where the stargate was in this facility, something he would definitely have to rectify.

"_When you're ready, call me and I'll give you directions," _Carter said, sounding a bit too reassuring. Jack rolled his eyes, figuring that it wouldn't be _that_ difficult to find his way to the stargate that was apparently in this facility somewhere.

"Right Captain, I'll get in touch with you soon," Jack replied, ending the conversation. He looked towards the Lieutenant who had been listening in while watching the corridor ahead. She raised an eyebrow when the conversation had ended.

"So, the Goa'uld are coming?" She asked, sounding not at all concerned. Jack nodded, realizing that if the Goa'uld fleet was in orbit then there would already be death gliders buzzing over the surface.

"Apparently," Jack replied, "which means we better speed this whole thing up. For some reason, I'm really not in the mood to fight Jaffa today."

Katelyn smiled before starting down the Goa'uld built corridor, Jack walking off to her right. Strangely enough there wasn't much activity in these older parts of the mountain facility but Jack knew all too well that looks could be deceiving. No doubt there were bad guys around here somewhere.

The pair rounded a corner into a fairly large room, one side opening into a vast but dark chamber that appeared to go deeper into the mountain. It was different in interior design, with shades of blue and grey stone which contrasted to the bright golds and browns of the Goa'uld facility. Over in the corner of the room was a work station with discarded papers and stone tablets left lying on it while near the wide entrance into the chamber was some sort of futuristic looking machine, built like some sort of cannon. It could have been some sort of weapon but it didn't have an intimidating enough look to it. A few technicians in blue-grey uniforms stood nearby, chatting quietly.

Without hesitation Jack had brought up the high-tech rifle, spraying fire across the three technicians grouped around the machine. They didn't have much time to react, simply getting cut down amongst the hail of bullets. Sparks flew as some rounds slammed into the machine, effectively neutralizing it.

Katelyn went to the entrance of the chamber once the technicians were down, soon arriving at some sort of railing that ran around the side of the depths of the chamber. Jack stepped up next to her, looking down into the chamber where a number of portable lights had been set up. About ten or fifteen metres down was a circular room with a triangular topped pillar set in the middle, columns of blue light rippling across the sides of the pillar in an eerie fashion. Standing before the pillar was the man Jack assumed was Roland Halverson, his back turned as he gazed at something set within the pillar.

Jack and Katelyn watched as he reached into a small compartment in the pillar and carefully removed a pyramid shaped object that had the same columns of eerie blue light rippling across it, just like the pillar. It was about the size of soccer ball, etched with strange symbols. As soon as he had removed the object the blue light on the pillar disappeared and the whole room seemed to shake, as if some sort of natural order had been disrupted. Jack sensed that something was a little off all of a sudden and so raised his rifle, aiming towards the figure down below. He watched as Roland picked up a dark metal case he had had resting by his side and opened it, carefully placing the pyramid shaped artefact into it before closing it and locking the latches.

"Roland Halverson, I presume?" Jack announced, the man below turning around and looking up at him. His dark eyes hid a sinister agenda, Jack could tell that much from this distance. Katelyn had her weapon pointed down at Roland as well, obviously sensing the same sort of bad vibes Jack was getting.

"Jack O'Neill, we finally meet!" Roland exclaimed when he recognized the Colonel, "I'm Roland Halverson. Perhaps you should come down here so we can talk, face-to-face?"

Jack looked around, able to see that there was no one else around save the three of them. A spiralling set of stairs lead down to the room Roland was in and so Jack considered the option, figuring that he would probably learn more from Roland if he at least showed some trust.

"Lieutenant, stay up here and keep watch," Jack said. Katelyn seemed surprised that he was actually going to go along with Roland's suggestion, the feeling evident in the expression she gave him.

"You can't be serious, Colonel? It's probably a trap," she said, stating Jack's thoughts exactly.

The Colonel shrugged.

"Just stay up here and keep watch," Jack ordered, "make sure no one else gets in here."

Without any other choice Katelyn nodded, turning her attention back towards the entrance of the chamber. Jack lowered his rifle and started down the spiralling stairs, occasionally glancing down at Roland. Roland remained where he was, watching the Colonel's progress with vague interest.

When Jack finally arrived on the same level as Roland he trained his weapon on the suspicious man, looking back up to where he had come from but finding that he was unable to see Katelyn. He figured that she would be alright keeping watch, seeing that there didn't seem to be many people around. It had almost seemed too easy on second thought.

_If it is a trap then I've just fallen right into it,_ Jack thought before adding, _big deal. I'll find a way out._

Roland regarded Jack curiously while hefting the case he had placed the artefact in with his right hand. He clutched it tightly at the handle, obviously with no intention of relinquishing it at all.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, I didn't think we would ever meet in person," Roland commented, sounding friendly enough. He glanced at the rifle Jack had trained on him, as if he thought the move was unnecessary.

"You really should put that gun down, Jack," Roland said, "it's not needed. I am unarmed, after all."

Jack could see that Roland was unarmed but that didn't mean he would take any chances. Jack was determined to wrap up the mission here and leave, which either meant that Roland would come with him dead or alive. He wondered which one of the two options Roland himself would prefer.

"The gun's staying up," Jack replied bluntly, "and to top things off you're going to come with me. How's that sound to you?"

Roland chuckled but Jack didn't find anything here amusing. He was faced with a serious criminal, a man who had had the entire SDIOA personnel stationed at this base murdered without mercy before their bodies were chucked into a pit outside and burned. Jack wasn't about to let him get away.

"Not very good, Jack," Roland replied "besides, I appreciate what you're doing. You know, fighting the Goa'uld and otherwise being a do-gooder of the galaxy. However, it is in this situation you fail to see the point. You have no idea what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, thus you shouldn't be so quick to judge a man by his actions…"

"You were burning bodies outside," Jack said, unfazed by all of the nonsense Roland had begun to dish out, "and I don't think that's a hallmark of a good guy. Sounds like something out of Nazi Germany…"

"It was necessary," Roland said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. He frowned, realizing that he was getting through to the Colonel. Jack wasn't going to let this guy fill his head up with all sorts of garbage although Roland had all the properties of a talented public speaker. No wonder he had an army of loyal followers.

"As is everything else I've done since my arrival on this planet," Roland continued, "what about you, Jack? Can you say the same for your actions? You and your team have killed many of my soldiers. Ask yourself this: was it absolutely necessary?"

Jack frowned, able to see that trying to get through to Roland Halverson would take a fair bit of talking.

"Self defence," Jack replied, "they were shooting at us so we shot back. I'm sure you can understand that."

Roland paused, thinking about this for a moment. Jack relaxed only a little, knowing full well that a man like Roland Halverson wasn't the type someone could trust easy.

"You don't have any idea about why I'm here, do you?" Roland asked, presenting this as more of a rhetorical question than any other. Jack shrugged in response to the question anyway.

"I thought you could tell me," Jack said, "so, you know, start talking. We haven't got all day."

Roland glanced at the high-tech watch he was wearing around his left wrist, as if contemplating how much time they had. No doubt the Goa'uld forces in orbit would be mobilizing by now in preparation for the ground attack.

"It's a long story, pardon the cliché," Roland said, "one I really can't be bothered sharing with you right now."

"How about something simple, then?" Jack asked, still unfazed by the sheer blasé attitude that Roland was presenting him. Jack was getting only slightly annoyed but annoyed nonetheless.

"How about you tell me what you put inside that case of yours?" Jack pointed with his rifle at the case that Roland was clutching. Roland shrugged, obviously not too willing to answer this question.

"I'm afraid that if I told you that, I'd have to kill you," Roland said. He cleared his throat and it took Jack only a moment to realize that this was some sort of signal, one that he should have seen coming. In fact, the Colonel felt like slapping himself across the face for not having foreseen what happened next.

Past Roland and the pillar part of the wall slid away, revealing a carefully hidden room. Out of it came a young blonde-haired woman who looked rather annoyed, a futuristic looking sidearm gripped in her right hand while the hilt of what looked like a chef's knife jutting out of a space between her chest and shoulder. She looked pale and Jack could tell she had lost a lot of blood, the front of her armour vest stained with the stuff. He recognized her as the woman who had shot the weapon right out of his hands during that earlier confrontation during his previous trip to this planet, the woman that had smiled at him to the thought of killing him.

She was followed by a pair of armoured soldiers, the two of them holding their rifles at the ready. Jack felt like calling for Katelyn but a single glance above quelled this idea, revealing that several of the armoured soldiers were positioning themselves at the top of the chamber. Katelyn was nowhere in sight.

Jack realized he was now in a spot of bother. He didn't think of lowering his rifle, at least not yet.

"You see Jack," Roland said as he slipped off the glove from his left hand with his teeth, "I've been planning this all along. I've seen the future and I intend to change it. You can't defeat someone who knows the outcome, can you?"

Jack wasn't too sure what he was talking about, with all these references to "seeing the future" but the Colonel was determined to shut Roland up. Even though he was surrounded and his chances of survival were minimal Jack still had the urge to silence Roland Halverson.

"Of course, with time travel there's always issues," Roland said, his left hand at his side. There seemed to be a flicker at the fingertips of that hand, as if there was heat there or something. Jack squinted, not too sure whether he should believe what he was seeing.

"I can predict things but they may not be fulfilled," Roland continued, "My presence in the future has affected things slightly." He raised his left hand, revealing that there were flames at the fingertips. Jack's eyes went wide at the sight while Roland smiled at the Colonel's surprise.

_What the hell?_

"I can only hope things turn out here the way they were supposed to occur," Roland said, a fist-sized ball of pure fire forming only centimetres from his open left hand. Jack realized what was coming and shook off his incredulity towards the situation, his mind telling him that creating fire with one's mind was impossible. However, what Jack saw before him was just that: pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control fire with one's mind.

Jack dived to the floor as Roland hurled the fireball towards him, the heat singing the top of Jack's head. Immediately Jack had his rifle up and raised, opening fire and spraying bullets across the foes ahead of him. One round caught Roland in the shoulder and he stumbled, managing to clutch onto his case while his left hand went to his wound. He grunted and started to jog away as the other soldiers started shooting. Jack ignored the bullets that zipped past him, instead rolling behind the pillar as he shifted his aim towards Roland who was fleeing up the spiralling stairs.

Another burst of fire and Roland stumbled slightly before he turned around, shooting Jack a fiery glare. Immediately the rifle in Jack's hands became red hot and he dropped it with a shout of surprise and pain, managing a look at the weapon as it melted into a sizzling clump of molten metal on the floor.

Roland was quick on his feet and was up and out of the room before Jack could react. Almost immediately the soldiers above opened fire but Jack rolled into an alcove at the wall, just out of the way of the hail of bullets that threatened to mow him down. Jack went for his Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol, pulling it out and turning around just in time to gun down one of the soldiers behind him. He shifted his aim to the other one, firing round after round and taking the soldier down before his pistol's magazine clicked on empty.

Two of the soldiers up above wielded zat'ni'katels and weren't hesitant to use them, firing blue energy blast after blue energy blast. The shots were close but not quite close enough, sending ripples of blue energy across the walls and floor but otherwise they didn't affect anyone. Jack glanced behind him, seeing the young woman with the knife stuck at her shoulder as she came racing towards him.

Jack blocked the punch she sent his way, noticing the tag on her vest as he did so: TAYLOR. He went for the pistol she had gripped in her right hand, clutching it tightly and pressing it towards her face. She snarled, animal-like and began to resist, an all-out test of strength occurring as the pair began to fight over the power of one sidearm. The firing from above became less frequent, the soldiers unsure of whether to shoot in threat of hitting one of their own.

_The last thing I need is to get beaten by a girl in a fight,_ Jack thought absent-mindedly. The Taylor woman snarled at him and Jack released one hand from the fight over the one gun, going for the knife stuck in her shoulder. He pushed up on it and she screamed in agony, stumbling backwards and giving Jack the perfect opportunity to deliver the finishing move. He pulled her pistol from her grip and in one fluid movement raised and fired, closing his eyes from the spray of blood and brain that followed.  
He kicked her stumbling corpse out of the way, reloading his Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol and wielding both that and the now dead woman's pistol at once. Above the soldiers had resumed firing but their aim was sporadic, presumably demoralized at the loss of one of their own (and a fairly important one at that).

Jack stepped from the alcove and began firing, his left hand pistol gunning down a soldier off to the far left. Some fire from his right turned his attention in that direction and he carefully blasted down the two soldiers up above. The rest descended into cover, giving Jack the opportunity to start up the winding stairs back to the top of the chamber.

As he went one of the soldiers came out from cover, his rifle firing. Jack ducked as bullets sparked off the walls near him while he raised both pistols and returned fire, the soldier twirling slightly as he fell under the hail of bullets. Jack was about halfway up when he heard some shooting up above, looking up to see that Katelyn was there and firing away her SPAS-12 shotgun at the last few soldiers that were left in the chamber. He hurried up the stairs to help her, arriving just as she gunned down the last soldier inside the chamber.

Jack took the time to catch his breath, reloading both pistols and frowning at Katelyn.

"Where were you?" He asked, unable to contain some of his annoyance. He had just had to take on several of the soldiers at once without Katelyn's help, as well as a guy who launched a fireball at him. It seemed this mission just kept getting more and more interesting.

"I was shot in the ass and hit with a zat blast," Katelyn said. She turned around and pointed to the bleeding hole at the base of one of her buttocks before she turned around again. "I don't know which hurts more."

Jack shrugged, not too interested in which of her injuries hurt more. They still had a job to do which meant that standing around and talking was just going to waste what little time they had.

"Roland's making his escape," Jack said, "We can catch him if we get moving. Come on."


	26. We'll meet again

**Chapter Twenty-four: "We'll meet again..."**

**Location: **P5H-734

The pulsating red lights that had been on throughout the facility had since stopped, replaced by the normal bright white ones which illuminated everything fairly well. Parts of the facility were empty, most of Roland's soldiers having since left to escape the oncoming Goa'uld onslaught. This mountain base would undoubtedly be one of their first targets since it contained the ancient ruins which housed some sort of powerful artefact, one that the Goa'uld who had previously been in residence on this world about a thousand years ago had been quite interested in.

Daniel Jackson had been tagging along with Carter and Teal'c as they had moved through the facility, the archaeologist occasionally having to give directions but otherwise it was a fairly straightforward path to the facility's gate room. It was fairly easy going seeing as all the remaining soldiers were either in the process of leaving or busy elsewhere, probably in an effort to stop Jack and Katelyn's progress towards the ruins deeper in the base.

However, the closer the group came to the gate room the more obvious it was that there was something going on there. There was the unmistakable sound of a stargate activation, followed by several shouts which echoed down the corridor. This inclined the group to hurry up since chances are more of the soldiers were trying to escape.

Teal'c kept in the lead as they worked their way through a few more corridors before finally arriving at one of the two entrances into the facility's gate room. Inside the stargate had been activated, the rippling water-like event horizon casting an eerie illumination throughout the large expanse of a room. Roland stood fiddling with a silver object he had stuck onto one side of the stargate, managing to look up and see the new arrivals. He was bleeding from a few wounds, one of which was at his shoulder while another two were in his lower back.

For having been shot a few times Roland didn't seem at all affected, only sweating a little in the relative cool of the facility. He did seem a tad annoyed at the arrival of Carter, Teal'c and Daniel but didn't take full notice of them until he had finished fiddling with the small device he had stuck on the side of the stargate itself.

Roland held in his right hand a bulky black metal case, possibly an item of important value. There was no one else around save for him and the three members of SG-1 although the uneven odds didn't appear to perturb him. Instead, he looked towards them and chuckled, finding something funny but Daniel wasn't sure what.

Daniel knew that Roland had some serious problems, perhaps mental scarring from past experiences. He did seem to be a loose cannon, evident in his sudden bursts of anger and mood swings. Whatever the reason he seemed to be awfully happy now despite the fact that Teal'c had his staff weapon trained on him. Teal'c was an excellent shot with the standard Jaffa weapon and it was doubtful that he would miss.

"I finally get to meet the rest of the famous SG-1!" Roland exclaimed, stepping onto the ramp that lead into the mouth of the stargate. Carter trained her zat'ni'katel on him, frowning at Roland's obvious lunacy. Was that a sign that Roland was having a breakdown? Perhaps, or it was just another mood swing.

"Do not move any closer to the stargate," Teal'c said sternly, keeping his staff weapon trained on Roland, "otherwise I will fire."

Roland laughed loudly again but he didn't garner a reaction from Teal'c. Whatever Roland was thinking must have been pretty funny to cause such a reaction in a situation like this.

"I know how things are supposed to turn out," Roland said, "so I wouldn't even bother firing if I were you. I would think it would be best if you three simply let me leave…"

"Why?" Daniel asked, stepping forwards. Roland would probably prefer to talk to him seeing as he seemed to know and trust Daniel well enough. Of course, this was just an assumption the archaeologist had made and so he was sort of hoping he was right.

"Why? Because that's what's supposed to happen!" Roland exclaimed, sounding exasperated, "I've seen the future! I know what happens here…"

"No you don't," Daniel said bluntly, noticing a slight look of surprise on Roland's face, "you even said so yourself that your presence in the past may be affecting the timeline. That means you don't know how things will turn out, just as anybody else can't predict the future. You're a liar, Roland, and a really bad one at that…"

Roland seemed to consider these words for a moment. Any sense of realization he had came across in the agitated expression he gave but he didn't move or do anything. Instead, he remained where he was, as if he was waiting for something.

The door across the room slid open and a group of the synthetic soldiers from outside marched in, standing to attention and in formation. Carter and Teal'c shifted their aim towards the soldiers although they both knew that the odds here had evened out considerably.

Daniel ignored the arrival of the soldiers, keeping his attention focused on Roland. It occurred to the archaeologist that perhaps it would be a good idea to memorize the symbols on the DHD in the small room behind him but such a manoeuvre would probably result in him getting shot at. Still, it was an option to consider. If Roland escaped here then it may be possible to use the symbols highlighted on the DHD to try and find out where he had gone.

"The odds are on my side, SG-1!" Roland exclaimed, "Besides, you're not supposed to kill me. Not here and not yet. No, you're going to have to wait a while. And I'm going to have to ensure you don't get out of here without the Goa'uld finding you…"

"What are you talking about?" Carter frowned, unsure of just what this man was going on about. Even to Daniel it sounded oddly vague but it was no doubt another attempt by Roland to fulfil the timeline he had interfered with.

"It's all supposed to happen," Roland replied, smiling menacingly. Daniel noticed that the blood that had been oozing from his wounds had somehow stopped and that the wounds themselves were gradually healing before his eyes. In all, it seemed that there were many strange things about Roland Halverson.

He turned around to head for the event horizon within the stargate, seconds before the group of synthetic soldiers across the room opened fire. Daniel dived to the floor, bullets whizzing through the air around him. The synthetic soldiers scattered, Teal'c and Carter firing away. Two of the soldiers were blasted down by Teal'c's staff weapon shooting while one was blasted by Carter's zat'ni'katel, although this didn't seem to have much effect on the synthetic.

Dissatisfied with the result, Carter put away her zat'ni'katel and brought out her rifle. She raised it and opened fire, cutting down the soldier she had blasted earlier before rolling behind some crates to avoid the return fire from the remaining synthetic soldiers.

Roland was about to step through the stargate's event horizon, stopping to turn around and offer one last wave towards Daniel. However, this somewhat light-hearted gesture was stopped when Teal'c took aim towards Roland and fired, the blast hitting Roland square in the chest. With a scorching hole in his front Roland gave a look of surprise before stumbling backwards, falling into the event horizon and disappearing into the wormhole.

Daniel started crawling towards the DHD, ignoring the bullets that slammed into the floor near him and whizzed by with little space between them and his body. He knew their best bet in finding out if Roland was well and truly dead lay in discovering the symbols that had been dialled; figuring out the order would come later.

However, the stargate shutdown before he could reach the DHD and the DHD itself switched off, no longer highlighting the symbols that had been dialled. Daniel stopped, realizing that their only chance of tracking down Roland had just gone. With nothing else to do than to defend himself Daniel took out his Beretta pistol, going up into a crouched position and moving behind the DHD as the soldiers ahead popped up to return fire.

Carter and Teal'c were taking cover amongst some crates, firing towards the soldiers that were across the room. Daniel was more or less getting ignored by the enemy at the moment, something he took advantage of as he carefully took aim towards one of the synthetic soldiers and began shooting.

Sparks flew off of the armour off of the soldiers he was aiming at, the 9mm rounds doing little to stop the synthetic. The synthetic soldier turned around and fired a volley, bullets bouncing off of the DHD as Daniel ducked behind it. He began to reload his Beretta pistol but was already frantic enough, fumbling the magazine and dropping it. Swearing quietly Daniel reached over to get it, grabbing it and carefully sliding it into its place within the hilt of the pistol. Pulling back the slider, Daniel caught his breath, trying to think this situation through.  
They were outnumbered and effectively stuck here. Roland could either be dead or alive although it seemed very unlikely that he was dead. He seemed the type who could take a fair bit of punishment so a single staff weapon blast probably wouldn't be enough to kill him.

"Daniel! Dial out!" Carter shouted from where she was, knocking Daniel out of his stupor. Gathering his senses Daniel went about dialling in the appropriate symbols for Earth on the DHD, occasionally having to duck behind the device as the soldiers shot in his direction.

Teal'c blasted another one of the synthetic soldiers down, seconds before Daniel finished dialling the gate and it activated. The kawhoosh that the stargate spewed forth was enough to throw off everybody's attention for a second although the synthetic soldiers seemed the least distracted, continuing their shooting even as the vortex stabilized into the main event horizon.

Daniel took out his GDO and began to furiously key in the authorization code to ensure that the iris at the SGC would pen. Twice he made a mistake in his frantic state and twice he had to redo it before he could send the signal through. However, he never got a chance to do that since a stray bullet ricocheted off of the DHD and slammed into the GDO he clutched in his hands, sending a sudden sharp pain down his right hand as the device went flying from his grip. He couldn't help but swear fairly loudly and immediately he dived for where the device lay on the flor, finding it with a gaping ragged hole in one side which effectively neutralized the usefulness of the device. The iris would still be closed at the SGC and death would await any who stepped into the wormhole.

The small silver device that Roland had attached to the side of the stargate beeped loudly, the noise reminiscent of the beep an oven made when the timer had finished and dinner was ready. Daniel watched as the device disappeared in an orange flash which in turn sent streaks of orange energy lancing across the ring of the stargate. These energy bolts seemed to go right through the thick iron ore that the stargate was constructed of, diminishing in brightness as they seared right through the device. Once this was over the stargate simply fell away from the razor edged cracks the energy bolts had caused, the wormhole closing as the stargate fell apart. It was an impressive sight as the two storey high ore ring crumbled before them but it wasn't a sight that Daniel had wanted to see.

_Now how the hell did that happen?_

Roland had mentioned something about making sure things played out as they were supposed to. It was safe to assume that the destruction of the stargate here simply fulfilled those preset events. Of course, Daniel would have preferred it if things hadn't ended with their nearest means of escape from this world being reduced to a pile of rubble.

That was when two familiar figures ran into the room from the way the synthetic soldiers had come, weapons raised as they blasted away the synthetic soldiers from behind. It was Jack and Katelyn, the Lieutenant having a noticeable limp as if she was having trouble putting weight on one side. They were certainly a welcome arrival, eliminating the remaining synthetic soldiers and stopping towards the centre of the room.

Carter and Teal'c came out of cover, the Captain unable to help but smile at the pair as she approached. Katelyn didn't seem too interested, instead looking towards the pile of rubble that had once been the stargate that lay at the end of the room.

"You just missed something important, Colonel," Carter said. Jack raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"What did I miss?" He asked, oblivious to the lack of a stargate in the room. The room had all the features of a gate room except for the stargate, an important omission it seemed.

"The stargate that was here just collapsed into a pile of…chunks," Daniel said as he approached, "and Roland got away…Not before Teal'c shot him, though."

Teal'c nodded at the mention of his name but didn't say anything. Jack looked around, noticing the ramp but the lack of a stargate at the end of it. He then noticed the pile of large chunks beyond it and the fact that these chunks still bore the features of the stargate, just not whole anymore.

"How the hell did that happen?" He asked, surprised, "I mean…Stargates don't just fall apart…"

"I think it was some sort of future-tech that was used," Daniel said, recalling the device they had seen Roland attach to the stargate, "after all, Roland is from the future."

Jack frowned and Katelyn's attention suddenly turned to the archaeologist. Daniel noticed now that there was a noticeable bullet hole at the base of Katelyn's left buttock, obviously meaning that she had had the misfortune to be shot in the backside.

"He is?"

"Yeah…He even told me himself," Daniel explained, "What I think he did was make sure the timeline remained intact. He made that clear before he left, saying that he was only making sure events played out as they should have. Maybe we're not meant to escape yet…maybe there's something we're supposed to do first…"

They were all silent for a moment as they contemplated on what they could possibly do to fulfil the timeline. Jack seemed the least concerned with this though, instead he looked back towards the remains of the stargate and swore quietly under his breath.

"The Goa'uld are on their way here," Jack said, turning back to the rest of the group, "I doubt we can do much else except get caught by them. And I really don't want to get captured by the Goa'uld…It's not a good thing, you know?"

"There is still the stargate out in the clearing," Teal'c said, "if we depart this facility now we may be able to get there before the extent of Khnum's forces arrives."

"Then let's get moving!" Jack exclaimed, starting for the nearest exit out of the gate room, the rest of the team following closely behind.

They hadn't gone far when the ground beneath them began to shake, as well as the rest of the facility and perhaps the whole mountain. Items fell off of shelves and the lights flickered uncertainly as the tremor reached its peak before stopping seconds later, the team having steadied themselves where possible.

"What was that?" Jack asked, looking around. They were close to the computer room and they continued onwards with the intent of using the ring transporter to get out of the base, arriving in the messed up computer room.

The place had looked fine when Daniel had last been in here but now it was a mess, with desks overturned and the bodies of dead armoured soldiers littering the floor. There was a large scorch mark in one part of the floor, left by a grenade explosion. The computer monitors off to one wall to their right seemed relatively intact although many were flickering. Some were linked to surveillance cameras around the base and one of them provided a view of the mountain side.

Looking at it Daniel could see a large dark shadow had fallen across the landscape, as if something large and imposing had parked itself on top of the mountain. He had a good idea of what it was, giving him and the rest of SG-1 all the more reason to get moving. They didn't have much time now, there was no doubt about that.

Jack removed the wristband he had acquired from a dead guard earlier which activated the ring transporter, the group gathering within the chalk circle that had been roughly drawn in the floor. With the press of a button on the wristband the teleport rings descended from the ceiling and surrounded them, deconstructing them within a second before depositing them within the dark tunnel that wound through the base of the mountain.

Once the rings were down in the ground and out of their way the group surveyed their surroundings. Up ahead they could hear shouts and weapons fire, the noises echoing down the tunnel from outside. Weapons at the ready the team started forwards, knowing that there was definitely something happening outside that they would end up running into soon.

Daniel kept at the tail end of the group with Katelyn who was limping as she walked. The group followed the tunnel until they saw the trio of armour clad warriors wielding staff weapons, all three of which were wearing large helmets styled in the fashion of a bull's head with red eyes. These three enemies were Jaffa, no doubt from the recently arrived Goa'uld fleet.

The shootout that followed was brief, Teal'c and Jack being the first ones to fire. Teal'c blasted down one of the Jaffa warriors while Jack swept rifle fire across the other two, cutting them both down in a hail of sparks as bullets slammed into their armour. Once the three Jaffa were down the team grouped around their bodies, Jack reaching down to one of them and finding a small pressure pad which in turn slid open the front of the bull-head helmets. Behind was the face of a young looking Jaffa warrior, a black ash-like tattoo on his forehead bearing the symbol of what looked to be a bull's head. In all, it was the sort of sight the team had grown familiar with over the last two years.

"I've never seen them wear those helmets before," Jack commented as he stood back up, "I've seen falcon and serpent helmets, but bull helmets? That's a new one…"

"They are Khnum's personal guard," Teal'c said, "some of the best trained Jaffa, almost on par with the Serpent Guard of Apophis. I have heard little about them, except that they are renowned for fighting in a dishonourable fashion." Teal'c gave a thoughtful look down at the dead Jaffa, trying to dig up any useful information from the darker recesses of his mind.

"Khnum was always portrayed as a man with a bull's head in ancient Egyptian mythology," Daniel said, citing what he knew of this particular ancient Egyptian god, "it makes sense he would have wanted to put that image onto his personal guard as well. All the more intimidating, I think."

Jack looked towards the entrance of the tunnel, able to see that the day outside was beginning to become night. During their stint within the underground facility they had lost track of all time, Daniel especially. It seemed they had been up for much longer than a single day as well, tiredness hanging heavy on their muscles but slowing down was not an option. If there were Jaffa here then the whole team was in trouble.

"Well, let's hope we don't encounter this Khnom guy or whatever his name is," Jack said, starting towards the entrance of the tunnel. Outside the sounds of battle echoed in, implying that Khnum's Jaffa were fighting it out with someone.

"The last thing I need is to run into another annoying snakehead," Jack added, the rest of the team following him as he went outside. The clearing was populated by six empty metal containers, all futuristic in design. The bodies of several "dead" synthetic soldiers lay scattered across the clearing while spent casings from fired rounds littered the ground, implying that a battle had been fought here recently. Judging by the weapons fire and shouts coming from the forest this battle was still underway.

It was cold outside and the ground was wet and muddy, each footstep they took getting almost swallowed up by the mud. There were about three of the armoured blue-grey SUVs parked at the other end of the clearing and it was obvious that taking one of these would net the best chance of escape.

Looking back towards the mountain Daniel could see what had cast the shadow over the outside camera before. Parked on the peak of the mountain was a Goa'uld ha'tak, otherwise known as a "mother-ship". It had the massive pyramid shaped centre structure and then the wide and mostly black adjoining triangular sections to it. The underbelly protruded right over the forest, casting a dark shadow across the entire area. A pair of death gliders zoomed out of the base of the pyramid, speeding off into the distance in the general direction of the town. The others managed a look at the mother-ship as well, all of them with quite good ideas that they would be found out soon enough if they stayed here for much longer.

Jack was the first to arrive at the nearest SUV, finding that the driver's side window was open. Looking inside Jack emitted a cry of triumph when he saw that the keys were in the ignition.

"The keys are still in this one," he announced to the rest of the team, pulling open the door, "we can use this to get back to the clearing where the stargate is…"

A yellow blast of energy shot out of the tree-line ahead and smashed into the side of the vehicle, leaving a scorch on the blue-grey paintwork. Jack ducked and so did everybody else who was with him, their attention shifting towards the trees where the shot had come from. From out of the undergrowth charged several Jaffa, staff weapons raised. A few of the Jaffa wore the bull head helmets while the others simply wore the close-fitting metal skull-caps that were far more common than the other specialized headgear.

Daniel ducked behind one of the metal containers as the Jaffa came charging out of the rainforest. Katelyn raced behind the SUV with Carter as the Jaffa opened fire, blasts of yellow energy shooting through the air. Some exploded on the ground while others shot off into the distance.

"Get in the car!" Jack ordered, "I'll keep you covered!"

Carter was the first inside, pulling open the door on her side and climbing in. Teal'c stood up from his crouched position, firing a few shots from his staff weapon and blasting down a few of the charging Jaffa before quickly climbing into the backseat of the SUV. Katelyn was the one who climbed onto the back and manned the mounted gun, swivelling it around where it was attached onto the vehicle and turning it against the charging Jaffa, pulling the trigger on the gun while keeping a determined expression on her face.

Most of the Jaffa twirled and spun, landing in the mud with soft thuds. The ones that weren't immediately killed raced for cover behind the nearby containers yet Katelyn didn't stop shooting, spraying fire across the positions the Jaffa had taken cover at.

Daniel seized his chance and raced for the SUV, climbing into the passenger seat next to Carter who had twisted the keys in the ignition in order to get the engine started. She revved it a few times and seemed satisfied with its performance.

Jack was the last into the vehicle, sitting in the backseat next to Teal'c. As soon as he was in and the doors were closed Carter floored the accelerator, swerving the vehicle around in the mud in order to orient it with the way onto the dirt road nearby. This was only seconds before several of Roland synthetic soldiers came running up that road with the intention of engaging the Jaffa that were in the clearing. When they saw the SUV and its occupants the synthetic soldiers raised their weapons and opened fire, the thick bulletproof glass managing to glance off the rounds that slammed into it. Regardless Carter and Daniel ducked while Jack leaned out of his side's window and returned fire, cutting down one of the soldiers with his rifle before Carter floored the accelerator again. She sped straight into two of the soldiers, knocking the pair aside with ease before speeding on down the road.

It was about a minute before anyone said anything, all of them preferring to keep quiet until they were absolutely certain they were home free.

"Whoa! That was intense!" Katelyn shouted from her spot at the rear of the vehicle where the mounted gun was. No one seemed quite willing to say anything in response though, leaving the Lieutenant to enjoy her excitement by herself.

Daniel wasn't sure about everyone else but he was tired, having been awake for a long time now. He sat back in his seat, watching the rainforest speed by the window. The SUV bounced and lurched along the uneven road thanks to Carter's somewhat reckless driving but he wasn't about to complain: the further they put between them and the mountain base the better. So much had happened today for everybody in the team and yet they still knew so little about the time travelling militia from the future. Roland had probably been doing everything in his power in order to avoid adversely effecting the timeline so it seemed that most of his actions were…justifiable.

Even so, there were still things that didn't add up. Daniel was curious to hear about what Jack and Katelyn had encountered during their time in the base, having decided to head down to the ruins to find out what it was that Roland had been looking for. The case that Roland had been carrying with him had no doubt been the artefact he had been after, what it was though was completely unknown. Daniel still had the notes and the small ancient tablets with him so perhaps, when they finally got back to the SGC, he might be able to determine some answers from the items.

That was if they weren't held up by the Goa'uld on their way to the stargate. As much as Daniel hated to admit it, they weren't home-free just yet. There was still a fairly long trip until they returned to the stargate and chances were there would be plenty of obstacles in their way, such as the Jaffa forces of Khnum and the synthetic forces of Roland Halverson. Roland had left a whole lot of his synthetic soldiers behind in order to buy himself some time, there was n doubt about that. The problem was there seemed to be an all out war on between the Jaffa and the synthetic soldiers, something that may impede SG-1's escape.

So, truth be told, they weren't completely off the hook yet. Not by a long-shot.


	27. Ambush

**Chapter Twenty-five: Ambush**

**Location: **P5H-734

The SUV rumbled along the uneven dirt roads, skidding at corners and kicking up mud behind it. It had begun to rain now, pouring down at a heavy pace with seemingly no end to the downpour. Puddles had begun to form all over the road, making driving along all the more hazardous. Jack O'Neill did his best to keep from falling out of his seat as the SUV went speeding over an uneven hump on the road, landing with a sickening lurch a short distance later. It had occurred to him that Samantha Carter had been driving a bit recklessly ever since they had managed to escape the mountain base in this SUV. Of course, she had good reason to be speeding along without much care for the rules of the road since they were undoubtedly being pursued by the enemy.

Katelyn was standing at the mounted gun on the back, getting soaked in the rain but there was no room for her to sit down. She didn't seem too concerned about getting cold and wet though, the sheer thought of manning a powerful mounted gun cancelled out her worries of getting a cold.

Teal'c sat on the other side of the backseat, his staff weapon resting across his lap. He had been alert the whole trip, watching through the window as they sped through the rainforest. Daniel sat at the front in the passenger seat while Carter was driving, braking and speeding where necessary. In all it was a very rough ride.

There were still plenty of things on Jack's mind, such as the encounter he had had with Roland Halverson. Sure, he barely knew the man but it seemed that Roland had known him well enough. To top things off Jack was sure he had shot Roland several times, definitely enough to take an ordinary man down. Of course, Roland was no ordinary man, evident in the way he had launched a fireball at Jack.

_A fireball? What the hell?_

Jack knew as well as anyone that launching fireballs was something that was against the laws of physics and pretty much any science he knew of. Jack wasn't much of a scientist so the details were beyond him; he just knew that someone creating fireballs was impossible. Even more disconcerting was the way Roland had seemingly used his mind to melt the gun Jack had been using at the time. Jack was certain there was a more rational explanation, even though he was yet to find one.

Now Roland had escaped, presumably dead from his wounds but there was a good chance that he was still alive. His new location was unknown and so SG-1 had effectively reached a dead-end when it came to finding Roland, something that Jack wasn't too pleased about. It seemed that all the bad guys they encountered had a habit of escaping, a common occurrence that Jack was getting tired of. The next time they encountered Roland would end with Roland getting his comeuppance, Jack would make sure of it.

Was Roland really from the future? This was something that Jack had been thinking about during the drive, trying to determine whether or not it could actually be true. The information had come from Daniel who had gotten it from Roland himself. It was likely that Roland was making it up but if Daniel believed it then there was good reason for Jack to as well. It would explain all the futuristic technology Roland and his soldiers had possessed and would explain his actions as simply trying to "fulfil the timeline". Of course, this was all just speculation and not rock solid fact.

Well, they could all discuss it more when they got back to Earth. Jack couldn't tell how far they were from the stargate but he had enough faith in Carter to think she knew where she was going. Again, this was just speculation but Carter was a trained pilot: why couldn't she be able to drive the right way in a ground-based vehicle?

"Are we there yet?" Jack asked, more to annoy the Captain than anything else. Carter seemed flustered, as if her concentration had been interrupted.

"No…" She replied, managing a glance back at Jack via the rear view mirror, "but I do know where I'm going. At least, I think so…All this rainforest looks the same."

"It looks to me we're headed for the town," Daniel said, as observant as he always was, "are we supposed to be heading for the town?"

Carter shrugged. Jack raised an eyebrow but wasn't too concerned about which way they were going to get to the stargate, just as long as they didn't get shot at on the way. Anything was better than getting shot at; there was no doubt about that.

"It's probably better than heading straight there," Carter said, "the rainforest and the clearing will be crawling with Jaffa. No use driving into an ambush."

"The town's probably full of Jaffa as well," Jack replied, "so I'm guessing either way has its fair share of risks."

Carter nodded, concentrating on the road ahead. The SUV bounced violently as it drove down into a sudden dip in the road before coming straight out again. Jack did his best to remain on the seat as the vehicle bounced around him, the wet and muddy conditions making the trip all the more hazardous.

The window next to Jack was open and outside he could make out the sounds of distant battle as well as the rumble of their SUV's engine. However, now he could make out another sound, a whine that was all too familiar with him. He leaned slightly out of the window, turning around to look back down the road. His view gradually shifted up towards the cloudy grey sky and it was up there he saw what was causing the noise.

"Death gliders!" He exclaimed, seeing the pair of Goa'uld death gliders racing down towards them. No doubt they had managed to see their fleeing vehicle from up high, probably assuming it was some of Roland's soldiers who were trying to escape. Or maybe they had heard of the people from the Tauri who had already killed a few of Khnum's Jaffa? It was impossible to tell but even so the incoming death gliders presented a problem, one that Jack nor anyone else in SG-1 had the equipment to deal with.

Katelyn turned the mounted gun around and opened fire as the death glider came in for a strafing run, their energy cannons firing. The shots exploded in the mud near the fleeing vehicle, sending dirt and fire flying across the SUV. Katelyn got a face full of dirt but managed to ignore it enough to open fire, the mounted gun thundering as it spewed high calibre rounds. They weren't enough to effectively penetrate the armour on the death gliders though and the gliders themselves were moving way too fast to be easily hit. They went flying overhead when they had finished their strafing run, heading into the distance before turning around to come in for another pass.

Everybody in the fleeing vehicle knew a single shot would be enough to send them off of the road, Carter taking heed of this and pulling the handbrake with considerable force. The SUV skidded and spun, aligning itself with a smaller and less refined road that winded into the rainforest. Without much thought Carter floored the accelerator, the SUV kicking up mud and water for a few seconds before the tires found grip and propelled the vehicle onto the smaller dirt road. The death gliders were by now coming back, their pilots seeing the vehicle's change of direction. The gliders broke off from their strafing run in order to align themselves with the vehicle but such an act would be difficult since a thick rainforest canopy now obscured their vision of their fleeing target. It was a smart move by Carter to go onto this road, Jack only hoped she could handle the vehicle enough to not crash and wreck it on the muddy dirt road.

The rainforest canopy would give them the cover they needed from the death gliders but it still didn't get rid of them. Those gliders could chase them all the way back to the stargate and there was a good chance that Jaffa warriors were already standing guard there. It was a problem the team would have to overcome when they came across it.

The death gliders in pursuit still took pot-shots at them, some of the blasts hitting the ground near the vehicle but most missed completely. Carter was shifting gears furiously, keeping her attention on the road as she swerved the vehicle around sharp bends and skidded it through the mud. The trees on either side of the road were always frighteningly close and Jack couldn't help but worry that they may end up crashing if Carter kept driving like this. Of course, slowing down wasn't much of an option either since they had the pair of death gliders after them. In all, it was a bit of a dilemma the team was in.

They were headed for the town but even so they weren't too close to it. There was still a fair way to drive and by taking this detour there was a chance that they would either arrive sooner or later than if they had remained on the main dirt road.

Teal'c seemed to tire of getting chased by the death gliders, instead he waited for Carter to guide them on a relatively straight section of road before he smashed his side's window and leaned out, bringing his staff weapon up to aim. Behind them the two death gliders were in close pursuit, zooming over the trees and trying to keep behind their target. Katelyn was in the process of reloading the mounted gun, something that shouldn't have taken as long as it was but it seemed that she couldn't find any spare magazines for it.

Teal'c took careful aim and fired several shots, a few of them finding their mark on one of the gliders. The shots simply glanced off of the armour of the glider, leaving nothing but slight scorch marks. Teal'c sat back inside the car, considering what other options they had available.

Jack was thinking the same thing in regard to their pursuers. They lacked the equipment to take down an armoured and highly manoeuvrable aircraft. No one had thought of bringing anti-air rocket launchers or any high powered guns since no one had known they would end up fighting the Goa'uld.

This is what annoyed Jack. They had come here to rescue Daniel from a high-tech militia; one that Daniel had said was from the future. Sure, it didn't sound all that difficult and it probably hadn't been the hardest mission when Jack thought back on it. However, the problem was that no one had told them that they would go against the Goa'uld during their second trip here. Not only that, but no one had mentioned that Roland seemed to have the ability to create fire with his mind. It was these little omissions from the briefing that annoyed Jack since he preferred to go into a situation with enough information to ensure that he was in for no surprises. It was surprising how many times they did end up in situations such as these, as if they were destined to forever get forced into life threatening circumstances.

"What's that?" Daniel's voice broke into Jack's thoughts. The Colonel looked up to see what had gotten Daniel's attention, seeing through the front windscreen that there was something lying by the road ahead. Behind them the death gliders had broken from the chase, the canopy above having become too much of a hindrance to their aim.

Carter slowed down when the gliders departed, rolling up beside the overturned SUV that lay by the side of the road. The bodies of about three Jaffa in bull's head helmets lay nearby, all of them riddled with bloodied bullet holes.

"Pull up!" Daniel exclaimed suddenly and Carter hit the brake, bringing the SUV to a sudden stop while causing its occupants to lurch forwards in their seats from the ceasing of motion.

"Daniel, there are probably going to be a hell of a lot more gliders on our tail once the two that left warn their buddies," Jack said, knowing he was speaking the thoughts of everybody in the team except for Daniel, "what could possibly be so interesting here?"

"By that wrecked car," Daniel said, opening his side's door and pointing towards the overturned SUV on the side of the road. Sitting by the wrecked vehicle was a young looking man in the blue-grey armour that all of Roland's human soldiers had been wearing, except this man lacked the helmet and his front vest had a few large scorching holes in it. He looked to be alive, the man sitting by the flipped vehicle and rocking back and forth while clutching his stomach.

Katelyn was the first to go over to investigate, climbing out of the gunner's position and walking over. Daniel climbed out of his seat and exited the vehicle, starting on his way to the wounded man. Jack sighed, not able to see how this was a wise decision but feeling that he had a responsibility to keep Daniel alive. They had come back to this world to rescue him after all: it would seem a bit pointless if Daniel ended up getting killed before they got back to Earth.

Jack opened his side's door and stepped out, watching as Katelyn approached the wounded man with her shotgun raised. Jack looked around, trying to determine if the area was genuinely safe or not but it was impossible to tell. They had trees and thick undergrowth on both sides and not only that but it was beginning to get into the evening and it was raining. These were definitely the best conditions for an ambush and there were plenty of places to hide while waiting for the most opportune moment to strike.

Jack walked over to where Katelyn and Daniel were, looking down at the wounded man who was sitting on a rock by the overturned SUV. He was bleeding from the several charred holes that had been blasted into and made their way through his armour at the chest, as well as a few of the same sorts of injuries at the legs. He didn't seem too concerned with the arrival of SG-1, simply giving them a disinterested glance before holding his head down and rocking where he sat.

Behind them, Teal'c had taken position by their SUV in order to keep watch. Carter was sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for them to return while watching the road.

"You know this guy?" Katelyn asked Daniel, gesturing towards the wounded man with her SPAS-12 shotgun.

Daniel nodded in response and Jack figured that the archaeologist had met this man during his time as a captive of Roland's army. There were probably a bunch of them that Daniel knew and it just so happens that this particular guy had been attacked by Jaffa on his way back to the mountain base.

"Yeah, his name's Lukas Farber," Daniel said, looking towards the wounded man, "he's the sort of person who could tell us all about Roland and why he came to this planet in the first place. What we already know barely scratches the surface."

"So we'll take him alive?" Katelyn asked, lowering her shotgun whilst raising an eyebrow, "are you sure that's a good idea? He doesn't look like the type who would come quietly…"  
Jack looked at Lukas and could see that the young man was probably better off dead. No doubt he was in tremendous pain from all of the burns he had received from staff weapon blasts during his firefight with the now dead Jaffa. Lukas looked like he was in the process of dying; he was just taking his time.

In a raspy, weakened voice Lukas finally spoke, looking towards those who wanted to capture him.

"You…will never…take me alive…" He managed to say. It was then that Jack saw the pistol that Lukas clutched in his right hand which hung limply by his side. Katelyn saw it too and brought her shotgun up again.

"Don't do anything stupid," she said, using her left hand to brush some rain slicked strands of hair away from her eyes.

Jack didn't know what they should do. Carrying an unwilling Lukas Farber around with them would just slow them down and there was a chance he would cause trouble. They were all in enough trouble as it was, the last thing they needed was an uncooperative prisoner to slow them down and downright annoy them.

"I will never betray Roland," Lukas said, sensing that he knew what they wanted to know. Daniel was the one to reply when he heard this.

"So you know where he went?" Daniel asked, "Because we could really do with that information…"

"Can we get on with this?" Jack asked, shifting where he stood, "I'm getting wet. We're all getting wet." He didn't see that taking Lukas captive would be worth the time, especially if it was only going to impede on their progress back to the stargate. Jack looked around, still with the feeling that they weren't perfectly safe here. No doubt the pilots of the death gliders that had chased them for a while would come back with reinforcements.

"Come with us Lukas," Daniel said, trying to sound as reassuring as he could, "we can help you…"

"Never!" Lukas exclaimed. Within seconds he had brought up his right hand and pressed the cold metal barrel of the pistol he held there up to his temple. Daniel looked away while Jack did so a bit late. Katelyn watched the whole occurrence though and her usual determined look did falter a bit.

There was a single gunshot and Jack saw the spray of blood and bits of brain and bone. Lukas slumped where he sat, a dumb lifeless look crossing his face. His gun wielding arm fell limp by his side while blood trickled out of the hole that had been blown into his temple while even more of the red stuff oozed out of the even bigger exit wound on the other side of his head.

Daniel managed a look and simply shook his head. None of them would ever be sure of what motives Lukas had to take his own life but it was obvious that he had been loyal to Roland's cause, whatever that cause had been.

"Let's get out of here," Jack said, shaking his head as well. What the hell was going on here that was important enough to take one's own life over? There was definitely more to be found out, much more than what they had already been able to determine.

Jack was about to turn around and head back to the SUV where Carter and Teal'c were waiting when several yellow blasts of energy shot from the tree-line ahead. Daniel was unscathed whilst Jack dived onto the muddy ground, pistol raised. Katelyn was the one who bore the brunt of the shots, one of them hitting her in the side of her ribs while another slammed into her chest, sending her flying backwards. She landed with a _squelch_ in the mud nearby, two smoking and scorched holes in her uniform where the blasts had hit.

It took Jack a moment to determine that they had fallen into an ambush. Teal'c had begun firing into the tree-line as vague shapes came into view, revealing themselves to be yet more Jaffa. Some were wearing the bull's head helmets of Khnum's personal guard while the others wore the standard silver metal skullcaps. In all, there must have been about a dozen of them positioned in the tree-line and they were all active now, firing away their staff weapons with reckless abandon.

"Daniel! Get out of here!" Jack shouted, noticing that Daniel seemed a bit dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of about a dozen hostiles. The archaeologist was broken out of his stupor and immediately started running for the SUV where Teal'c had taken cover by. Teal'c was aiming and firing his staff weapon towards the Jaffa, trying his best to cover Daniel's retreat.

Jack realized he was caught right in the middle of it all, a spot that probably wasn't in his best interests to be in. He crawled to where Katelyn lay and checked her for a pulse, shaking his head when he didn't find one. He went into a crouched position, scanning the tree-line ahead for any immediate threats. Two of the Jaffa were charging in his general direction, staff weapons raised. Jack aimed with his Heckler & Koch Mark 23 pistol and began shooting, cutting down both Jaffa with several rounds before he had to reload.

He was in the process of reloading when he felt a burning and rather excruciating pain shot through his left leg, the force of the staff weapon blast that had skimmed there sending him falling onto his side in the mud. He yelled out in pain but quickly composed himself, taking a look at the burnt and bloodied section of his leg that had been hit. He decided his best option was to ignore the pain for now and concentrate on getting the hell out of here.

"Colonel!" It was Carter who was yelling at him, concern ringing in her voice. Jack looked around and could see that the Jaffa were pressing forwards, a few arriving in position only a few metres ahead of him. Jack reached over to Katelyn's corpse and picked up her SPAS-12 shotgun, deciding that if he was going to go down he may as well do it in style and take as many of the bad guys with him as he could. Sure, he had been in situations like this before but something told them he wouldn't be able to get out of this one without some scratches. He had already been shot once, anyway.

"Get going!" Jack yelled back at the others, able to see that Teal'c was being reluctant and staying where he was by the SUV whilst firing away at the oncoming hordes of Jaffa.

Jack turned around and began firing at the Jaffa ahead, taking one of them down and getting the attention of the other two ahead of him. Staff weapon blasts zipped past him but Jack ignored them and kept firing, blasting another Jaffa warrior down. Behind him he could hear the others shouting at him but they were caught up with trying to hold off the other Jaffa who were shooting at them to really be of any assistance.

"Just go!" Jack shouted at the top of his lungs, unwilling to let his friends die just because they didn't want to leave him behind. He turned his attention back to the seemingly never ending hordes of Jaffa, blasting away with the SPAS-12 shotgun as he rose to his feet. He limped on his wounded leg, cringing from the pain but managed to keep his balance regardless. There were more Jaffa coming from his right and he turned around, firing in their general direction as about four of them came charging out of the rainforest. Two of them fell before Jack found that he had to reload, an inconvenient occurrence that only left him vulnerable.

He didn't have any spare shotgun shells on him so he dropped the shotgun, going ahead to slide a new magazine into his Les Baer pistol before he resumed firing. Some of the other Jaffa were racing towards the SUV where Teal'c and the others were, pausing to fire at the vehicle and inclining the others to get back inside in preparation for a getaway. It was obvious they would have to leave him behind in order to save themselves, something Jack would prefer to have happen rather than all of them getting killed.

"We'll be back for you, Jack!" This was Daniel's voice shouting above the sounds of the weapons fire and Jack couldn't help but manage a slight grin, one that didn't last long since he heard the SUV's engine start. He watched as the vehicle sped away, leaving the Jaffa to deal with him and him only.

_Oh well, at least when you're outnumbered it's harder to miss,_ he thought. A few of the Jaffa charged at him, going into close combat mode and using the non-firing ends of their staff weapons as clubs. Jack ducked under a swing and fired several rounds into the gut of the Jaffa that had tried to knock him over whilst kicking aside one of the others. He realized that they had stopped shooting as a few of them went onto him at a time, as if to make the fight fairer.

Jack was tired and his lungs were more or less aching but he still managed to fight off the first few, tripping them up and using his pistol as a makeshift melee weapon. He noticed that one of them had brought out a zat'ni'katel so Jack decided to take the initiative and shoot first, gunning down this particular Jaffa moments before another two proceeded to try and punch him up.

After a few minutes of fighting the remaining Jaffa warriors seemed to tire of trying to win against the warrior from the Tauri and so several of them went onto him at once. Jack managed to avoid swings of their staff weapons and other similar blows, knocking aside the oncoming Jaffa warriors with relative ease and proficiency.

Jack figured he was on a roll, a thought that was quickly quelled when one of the Jaffa managed to get his staff weapon over the Colonel's head, pressing the metal against his neck in an effort to subdue him. Jack's arms went up to clutch at the weapon and attempt to remove it. As soon as he did that two of the remaining Jaffa raced towards him and slammed their staff weapons into his gut, winding him and more or less having the intended effect of leaving him even more vulnerable. Another few blows resulted and Jack found himself gasping for breath, the Jaffa who had him in a headlock with a staff weapon releasing him and kicking him in the back.

Jack crumpled into an exhausted heap on the muddy ground, trying to catch his breath. About five Jaffa surrounded him, one of which was wearing one of the fancy metal bull's head helmets. Jack figured that he was the leader, perhaps even the First Prime of Khnum. This particular Jaffa took out a zat'ni'katel and switched it to its ready-to-fire state, aiming it down at the exhausted human before him. With the flick of a switch the bull's head helmet unfolded, revealing the face of a rather stern looking man with the gold emblem of the bull's head on his forehead. Jack knew he was right about this guy being the First Prime.

"The others, where are they going?" The First Prime asked sternly, thinking that Jack would simply answer.

Jack looked up at him after managing a few deep breaths, trying to get himself out of his winded state.

"I'm not telling," Jack replied simply, thinking he could do worse than to piss off a First Prime, "besides, you smell bad."

The Jaffa shot him an angry glare, one that more or less said that he was annoyed. Jack had been hoping for such a result, even if there was a dangerous weapon pointed at him. Oh, and he was right about this Jaffa smelling bad. At least, someone nearby had a serious case of body odour.

"Perhaps our Lord Khnum will have some use for an irritating excuse of a person such as yourself," the First Prime said, "in fact, he is quite curious as to why you warriors from the Tauri came here. Perhaps you can tell him yourself?"

"I don't think so," Jack replied, slowing beginning to get back onto his feet. It was no surprise when the First Prime fired his zat'ni'katel, the shot hitting Jack in the chest and sending pain-inducing energy coursing through him. Jack groaned and fell onto the ground again, trying to recover from the aches that he could feel all over his body only to have a pair of Jaffa grab an arm each and yank him back onto his feet. They were going to take him captive, a move that only marginally surprised him.

The First Prime regarded him with some dislike. Jack didn't say anything, having trouble moving his mouth after the painful shock that had just coursed through him. In fact, he could barely move any of his muscles at the moment.

"We will take you to Lord Khnum," the First Prime said, "and he _will_ make you give him the information he wants." The First Prime then barked orders to the pair holding up Jack in the Jaffa/Goa'uld language and the pair of Jaffa began to cart Jack away.

Jack didn't bother fighting them. He was too tired and hurt to even want to consider the option. He didn't like the idea of meeting this Khnum guy but it seemed that right now he didn't have much of a choice. Besides, chances are he would find a way out of this mess. At least, he _hoped _he would.


	28. Decisions

**Chapter Twenty-six: Decisions**

**Location: **P5H-734

When Carter finally pulled up it was more because they were lost than any other reason. If she had known where she had been going then they would have kept driving, further leaving behind Jack to his fate at the hands of the Goa'uld that had come to this world. It had been hard enough to leave him behind in the first place; it was even harder to keep on driving knowing that he could very well be dead.

Daniel wasn't about to leave Jack to his fate and neither was Teal'c. Carter was probably wracked with indecision, something that was evident on her face but even so she probably thought it better if the three of them got away with the loss of two team members rather than them all getting captured and/or killed.

They had seen Katelyn get killed and even though they had only known her for a short time it had still affected their morale. It was the first real time they had lost a teammate and known that they would stay dead. There was apparently no helping Katelyn Raine it seemed and chances are they had seen the last of her.

It was also apparent that the Jaffa would probably capture Jack, a fact that Daniel and Teal'c would prefer to have been sure of. The Goa'uld System Lord Khnum would probably be curious as to why they were here and was probably after the artefact that Roland had taken with him through the stargate so Jack O'Neill would make a somewhat decent source of information, even though he knew just as little as the rest of them. Khnum had missed his chance to get Roland or any of his loyal soldiers, something that probably wasn't apparent to the Goa'uld in question just yet.

Daniel knew what they had to do. He knew that Teal'c was thinking the same thing whilst Carter looked indecisive, as if thinking about it thoroughly. All they had to do was turn around and head back the way they had come, going back to where they had been ambushed in order to find Jack and see if he was alright. Leaving him behind had been a heat of the moment decision, one that Daniel didn't think very highly of. Jack didn't like leaving anyone behind, hence the reason he and the team had come back to rescue Daniel. Why should they leave him behind when he was so willing to come back and save others?

These thoughts were going through Daniel's mind and Teal'c's. Carter seemed to be rocking back and forth in her chair, trying to figure out what they should do. She had pulled over the SUV and had turned off the engine in order to save fuel, seeing as they had been driving for quite a while.

There was a brief silence as the three of them thought their options over, with Daniel and Teal'c leaning more towards going back for Jack. The loss of Katelyn had hurt their morale but there was nothing they could do about that. They had been ambushed, taken by surprise: Katelyn probably hadn't known what had hit her.

It seemed that Khnum had a sizeable force for a System Lord that had been on the run for about a thousand years. He even had his own sort of personal guard, much like the Horus and Serpent Guards that SG-1 had encountered in the past. Khnum was probably the type of cunning Goa'uld that made sure to replenish his forces with fresh Jaffa whenever he got a chance. No doubt that he had been able to move abut freely once Ra had been killed a few years previously, something that Daniel and Jack were sort of responsible for. It wouldn't be crazy to say that he and Jack were responsible for this situation since it had been the two of them that had transported a nuke onto Ra's ship and in turn it had blown the Supreme System Lord away…without Ra's forces to try and track down and kill Khnum, Khnum was able to move freely through the galaxy and create a sizeable force whilst knocking off less powerful System Lords for their ships.

In all it seemed that they had encountered a powerful adversary who had just happened to come to this planet seeking the alien artefact that Roland had recently taken with him through the stargate. It was a safe bet that they would never find out where Roland had gone to, Daniel having missed his chance to discover the symbols dialled by Roland into the DHD in order to determine where he had gone to. Roland probably had some sort of main base on a faraway planet, one well out of the way of the Goa'uld and any other space-faring or stargate-faring foes. Chances are they would never see Roland again and they would never find out just what he had been planning.

Hence why this whole mission had become incredibly frustrating. They had found out little about Roland and his army save that they were from the future and intended on getting away with an alien artefact, one that Daniel had no idea about what purpose it was used for. And rather than be an easy escape back to the stargate they had ended up getting pursued by Jaffa and had technically "lost" two of their team members, a blow to morale that was very hard to overcome. It seemed that things just kept getting from bad to worse, as if they were destined to be hit with bad luck when they were on this world.

Now it was decision-making time and Daniel was intent to not end their mission on such a solemn and downbeat note.

"What do you think we should do, Sam?" Daniel asked, noticing that Carter seemed to be thinking things over, "we just left Jack behind and Kate's dead…It seems that we're definitely in trouble."

Carter shook her head, completely unsure of what she should say or do. She turned to look at Daniel, frowning as she tried to determine their best course of action.

"We can run off to the stargate, but chances are that's under guard," Daniel said, although this was far from what he wanted to do, "or we can go back and rescue Jack since I owe him that much and I'm sure Teal'c would agree. He came back for me…why can't I return the favour?"

"And get killed?" Carter asked, doubtful about the whole idea, "There are way too many Jaffa back there. If we go chances are we'll be the ones needing the help…"

Daniel shook his head, definitely not about to accept Carter's somewhat downbeat prediction.

"I'm not leaving Jack behind," Daniel said, "and besides, we have no idea if Katelyn's still alive. She could be lying there, half-dead and we wouldn't even know. We have to go back."  
Carter sighed, shaking her head. She could see that Daniel wasn't about to listen to her, even if she was the only true military person here. Daniel was an archaeologist while Teal'c was simply a gun-toting friend who had joined with them. Carter was in fact the only proper military person in the three, bearing the rank of 'Captain'. That meant she was technically in charge of the mission know and the trouble was she had barely any idea on what was the right thing to do.

"What do you say, Captain?" Daniel asked, "We go back for Jack and Katelyn. It's the least we could do…"

"I don't see how us going back just so we can get ourselves killed is going to help," Carter said, trying her best to be the voice of reason here, "I care about Jack as much as you do but we can't let ourselves meet the same fate.

"No, rather we should head back to Earth. There we can gather some reinforcements in order to come back here and rescue Jack…"

"And by the time we get back Jack will probably be dead!" Daniel found himself yelling, more out of frustration towards their whole situation than anything else.

"I wish to go back for Colonel O'Neill and the Lieutenant as well," Teal'c said from the backseat, "and Daniel Jackson is right: by the time we do come back here with reinforcements Khnum may have already left, taking O'Neill with him as a prisoner. We would only return to a Goa'uld enslaved world and thus finding Colonel O'Neill would be far more difficult. If we act now we still have a chance of finding him and the Lieutenant, if she is still alive."

Carter shook her head, still wracked with indecision and still trying to determine what was the right thing to do. Daniel could see that she wanted to go back and rescue Jack as much as he and Teal'c did; she just knew that there were far too many risks involved with such a plan that it might not be worth it.

"We can't," she said simply, knowing that it was probably the more reasonable course of action, "it's far too dangerous. Those Jaffa are probably out looking for us: if we go back we'll just fall straight into their hands. There is no use in us getting killed or captured since chances are we'll have far too much useful information that they'll probably want to torture us for it…"

"And they'll do that to Jack!" Daniel exclaimed. Since the vehicle had been pulled over he pushed open his side's door and stepped out, figuring that Teal'c would join him in their crusade to rescue Jack and Lieutenant Katelyn Raine. Carter came out as well, looking a little flustered but still trying to be the voice of reason. Teal'c stood by Daniel, adamant in what course of action he was going to take.

"I'm in charge of this mission now and I'm ordering you—" Carter was interrupted; Daniel was able to tell that there was some annoyance in her expression when this happened.

"You can't order me and you can't order Teal'c," Daniel said, able t tell where Carter was going with her current train of speech, "Teal'c and I aren't technically in the military. We're just…advisors, I guess." The archaeologist shrugged while Teal'c simply nodded his head slightly in agreement. Carter sighed, beginning to see that maybe convincing Daniel wasn't going to work.

Daniel knew the risks he and Teal'c would have to take in order to find Jack. It was definitely a suicide mission but Daniel wasn't about to leave Jack to an uncertain fate at the hands of the Goa'uld. Teal'c wasn't going to let that happen either, hence Daniel could rely on the big Jaffa warrior for support.

"Look, I want to see Jack rescued as much as you do, Daniel," Carter said, shaking her head more out of frustration than any other reason, "but going back now and trying to find him is simply to dangerous. Did you see the Goa'uld mother-ship parked on top of that mountain or did you miss that little detail?"

Daniel remembered quite well that there was a Goa'uld mother-ship parked on a mountain, the same mountain that contained the SDIOA complex and ancient ruins. The mother-ship was in view even now, resting on the peak of the mountain while a number of death gliders zoomed around it, obviously on patrol. It was a fair way back there but chances are that's where the Jaffa would take Jack if he was still alive and he probably was. There was no use assuming he was dead and not even going about to be sure of it.

"We've been against tougher odds," Daniel said, turning to Teal'c, "haven't we, Teal'c?"

Teal'c paused for a moment, thinking this through.

"I do not believe we have, Daniel Jackson," he replied in his usual matter-of-fact way.

"Uh…thanks for the support, Teal'c," Daniel replied. Teal'c nodded in acknowledgement whilst keeping a straight expression, obviously unable to tell when someone was being sarcastic towards him. Regardless, Daniel decided to press his point further onto Carter in the hopes that she might decide to come along with him and Teal'c.

"Look, what good is going back to Earth going to do?" Daniel asked, "Chances are we're going to return here and discover that finding Jack would have become impossible. We should start looking for him now, when the trail's still fresh. They can't have taken him far."

"They could have taken him on board that mother-ship…"

"Then we'll just have to find a way to get on board," Daniel replied, although even he knew this would be no easy feat. Getting on board a heavily guarded Goa'uld mother-ship would require some excellent planning and a good measure of luck to top it off. Sure, they had done this sort of thing before but that had been under different circumstances.

Now all they had to go on was the assumption that Jack was still alive. Chance dictated that he was since the Jaffa would probably want to bring their boss Khnum a good source of information and Jack was probably the best source on the planet at this time. Of course, Jack wasn't the type who would give up any secrets so a good degree of torture would probably be used on him if he proved too resilient for Khnum's liking.

"Look, I don't like this plan," Carter said bluntly, "but I'm going to let you two do it while I continue on to the stargate and try and get back to Earth and get reinforcements. Hopefully Robards will be willing to listen…"

"So you're going to leave us?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow. He hadn't been quite expecting this turn-out but it was better than not going on to rescue Jack.

"Look, I can get help," Carter said, "and that will increase our chances of finding Jack and the Lieutenant. You two can keep on his trail so it doesn't go cold, furthering our chances of finding him. I'll be back with help within a few hours…"

Daniel nodded. He could see the logic in Carter's plan and so decided to go along with it, even if it wasn't what he had been quite hoping for.

"Well, are you going to take the car?" Daniel asked, "Because Teal'c and I can simply walk back to where we last left Jack. You'll probably need the car more than we do…"

"I was hoping you'd say that," Carter replied, "Since it's a pretty long trip back to the clearing where the stargate is."

"We must depart immediately, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, "the longer we wait the less chance there is of us locating O'Neill."

Daniel nodded, knowing that this was more or less the truth. He wanted to make sure he was ready for any possible encounters with enemy Jaffa so he took out his Beretta, loading a fresh magazine into it and sliding the trigger so that the weapon was ready to fire. There was a very high chance that he and Teal'c would end up in some sort of shootout with Khnum's Jaffa, especially if they ended up going on board the Goa'uld System Lord's mother-ship which was probably the one parked on the mountain in the distance.

Daniel was already having second thoughts but he knew that if either Jack or Katelyn were alive then there was no point in leaving them to their fates at the hands of the Goa'uld. Two people from Earth would have a great deal of information to tell the Goa'uld and if put under enough pressure they may talk, although that was probably very unlikely.

Teal'c had already started back along the road, his footsteps squelching in the muddy ground and splashing in puddles.

"Good luck, Daniel," Carter said.

Daniel nodded in acknowledgement.

"Same to you, Sam," he replied, "we're both going to need it, by the looks of things. I have to say, this whole mission has just been one interesting ride."  
"And a dangerous one," Carter added.

"Yeah, that too."

With that, Daniel started following Teal'c, leaving Carter alone by the SUV. Within the minute she had climbed back inside, starting the engine and speeding away, the back wheels kicking up mud and water in their wake.

* * *

The day had become evening and the sun was low in the sky, although it was next to impossible to see the sun because it was far too cloudy. The rain had kept up at a steady pace, stopping and starting every few hours. By now parts of the rainforest had began to flood, the banks of the river in the region breaking at a few areas and sending forth large streams of muddy water to carve their way through parts of the rainforest.

On an ordinary day on this world the rainforest would be a rather peaceful place, with hunting parties from the local town going about hunting game to supply their families with fresh meat. Today was different however, since there was a single distinct change in the immediate landscape: the Goa'uld mother-ship that sat parked on the top of the tallest mountain near the valley, casting a dark shadow over a wide area around that mountain.

The town that Daniel, Carter and Katelyn had visited the day before had come under heavy attack from Jaffa piloted death gliders and Jaffa warriors on foot. It seemed that Khnum had sent a considerable amount of his forces to several of the larger settlements on the continent in order to enslave the native population. The town at the far end of the valley near the coast had been under siege for the past few hours, thick plumes of smoke wafting their way up from destroyed and now flaming buildings. The sounds of battle could be heard throughout the region but most of the battle was one-sided, with the Jaffa easily winning out over the more primitive native people who were armed with swords and flintlock rifles. Such outdated weaponry was no match for Jaffa armour and energy weapons, so it was an uneven battle indeed.

Carter had been wondering about the fate of the native people for a while now, figuring that Khnum would probably assert himself as their God and proceed to exploit them. He had done it in the past when he had first brought them here from Earth several thousand years ago and it seemed he would do it again upon his return after a thousand year absence.

Carter had been driving for quite a while now, trying to find her way back to the clearing where the planet's primary stargate was located. She understood Daniel and Teal'c's obligation to find and rescue Jack but she knew that at least one of them would have to make it back to Earth and get help. The three of them couldn't really take on a Goa'uld fleet by themselves.

Another thing that had been on Carter's mind was the nature of the new enemy they had encountered: Roland Halverson and his loyal army, some of which were in fact synthetic soldiers. It did make sense that Roland and his army were from the future but why they had come back in time, probably using the stargates to achieve this, was beyond her knowledge. Daniel had explained that Roland had wanted some kind of artefact that had been in some ruins underneath the SDIOA facility and it seemed that he had made off with it in the end. In fact, their whole encounter with Roland and his army had brought up more questions than answers and it seemed that their search for information had been ultimately fruitless.

The task ahead of her didn't seem too difficult: get back to Earth, get help. She was hoping that Hammond had since returned to the SGC from his brief absence since she could get through to him rather than the somewhat careless General Robards. Robards would no doubt want to detonate the nuke they had been made to bring with them, an outcome she didn't want to occur. Chances are the nuke was still waiting near the stargate and so to ensure it would not be detonated she would bring it through with her when she returned to Earth.

Finally she could see that she was nearing her intended destination, the road ahead opening out onto the clearing where the stargate was located. She stopped just before the clearing though, climbing out of the SUV and making her way into the nearby undergrowth in order to scout the area for potential hostiles.

She lay prone amongst the undergrowth and took out her field binoculars, putting them up to her eyes and peering through. She had zoomed in at the stargate, able to see that there were a few things wrong. For one there was no sign of either SG-3 or SG-5. For another the nuke was missing, a telltale sign that things hadn't gone according to plan. She figured that maybe SG-3 or SG-5 had taken the nuke back with them although this was just speculation since there was no way to prove this.

There were about five Jaffa patrolling around the stargate while another was manning a mounted staff cannon, the sort of weapon someone would not want to be on the receiving end of. They were oblivious to her presence and were probably bored with their guard duty.

Now how would she get to the stargate? She would probably end up having to take on all six of these Jaffa and judging by the lack of cover in the clearing such a move would probably end with her getting killed. There was certainly no use in giving up now since she had come this far with a plan and would prefer to see that plan through.

Carter started to make her way along the tree-line, keeping low as she considered her options. Six Jaffa, one manning a staff cannon. All six had no idea that she was here and thus the element of surprise would be with her. She would have to use that to her advantage if she was going to get to the stargate and get back to Earth.

Carter snuck her way to a position in line with the stargate with at least fifty metres of the clearing between her and the stargate itself. It was here she could take an easy shot at the sides of the Jaffa warrior manning the staff cannon and thus take out the most prominent threat in the vicinity first. After that she would have to deal with the other five by whatever means she could.

Carter took careful aim at the Jaffa warrior manning the staff cannon whilst taking a few deep breaths to calm herself before the inevitable shootout. It was just her against half a dozen Jaffa warriors: she would have to make sure that she made no mistakes. There was no room for error in a situation like this.

That was when Carter heard the footsteps and rustling in the undergrowth behind her. Immediately she turned around, finding that two Jaffa warriors in bull's head helmets were making their way through the rainforest behind her. They were obviously on some sort of patrol, one that just happened to cross paths with Captain Samantha Carter.

It took the Jaffa only a moment to see her lying amongst the undergrowth. Carter was the first to shoot though, her M4 rifle thundering surprisingly loudly as if to deliberately alert the other Jaffa warriors who were out in the clearing that there was an intruder nearby.

The first of the bull-helmeted Jaffa ahead of her fell as bullets hammered against and through his armour. The other had enough time to bring up his staff weapon and fire, the blast slamming in the ground close to Carter's head and sending up dirt and leaves. Carter shifted her aim and sprayed rounds at this particular Jaffa warrior, cutting him down with relative ease.

Carter immediately turned around, seeing that the other six Jaffa had turned their attention in her general direction. The warrior manning the staff cannon shifted his aim towards her and fired a few times, the blasts cleaving through trees near the Captain as she started running along the tree-line. Blasts shot by her while some exploded near her feet, kicking up dirt and general forest litter as she ran. She didn't know where she would go but she figured that finding some effective cover would be a good move.

Up above she heard the whining noise of what sounded like an approaching death glider. She looked up, surprised to see that it was in fact a large looking oval shaped ship, certainly not a design she had seen before. At its base was a large dual energy cannon, the cannon tracking her as it flew into position near the stargate. From its underbelly came the five rings of a ring transporter which halted at the ground and teleported about four Jaffa onto the clearing before the rings shot back up into the ship.

Carter had a feeling what was coming next and so dived for the ground only seconds before the dual energy cannon on the base of the large ship fired. The shots slammed into the ground near her, sending heat washing over her. The concussion wave from the blast sent her flying into the mud face-first while dirt and splinters of bark were usurped around her.

Dazed and hurt she took her face out of the mud and looked around, trying to gather her senses. She realized that she wasn't holding her rifle anymore and so pulled out her zat'ni'katel instead, slowly rising onto her feet.

Out in the clearing were now about ten Jaffa, all of which had their weapons trained on her. Energy blasts zipped by her and exploded on the ground near her, Carter making sure to start back into the rainforest for cover. The ship that hovered over the clearing seemed to have lost interest in her for now, preferring to lead the Jaffa warriors on the ground deal with her.

Carter realized she was in trouble, racing through the forest with no real idea of where she was going. Behind her she could hear shouts and footsteps as Jaffa warriors pursued her with the obvious intention of capturing or killing her, whatever proved itself more convenient.

During her hurry to try and make an escape into the rainforest she didn't see the sudden incline in the ground beneath, taking a step forwards only to end up painfully sliding down a slight slope and into a fairly bare part of the rainforest. Her tailbone hurting she quickly rose to her feet, turning around with her zat'ni'katel raised as she awaited the arrival of her pursuers.

Carter knew that she was now vulnerable, able to tell that no matter in what direction she went she would be open for one of the Jaffa to shoot her. She decided to make her stand here and now, her determination to end this chase not being wasted as a pair of Jaffa came charging through the tree-line from the direction she had come from.

She fired several shots from her zat'ni'katel in quick succession, taking down the two Jaffa who in turn came rolling down the slope, kicking up leaves and dirt in their wake. As they came to rest near her another three Jaffa arrived from the tree-line, one of which was wielding a zat'ni'katel.

Carter went to fire but the Jaffa with the zat'ni'katel shot her first, sending painful energy rippling through her muscles which made her shout and sent her crumpling into a heap on the ground. She could barely move her muscles let alone shoot back and so her zat'ni'katel fell from her grip.

Within seconds the three Jaffa had grouped around her, one of them being kind enough to ensure she would be of no trouble during her transportation to the mother-ship. This particular Jaffa brought the butt-end of his staff weapon down onto her head with enough force to knock her out cold. Carter's last image was of the face of the young looking Jaffa who had done it.


	29. Khnum

**Chapter Twenty-seven: Khnum**

**Location: **P5H-734

There had been nothing until now, simply light and well…nothing much else. It was as if her memory had blanked after a certain time, leaving nothing but hazy dreams and vague memories. She could remember standing by the road, having just witnessed Lukas Farber shoot himself in the head. After that there had been several points from the surrounding rainforest where enemy fire had shot out from and this was last thing she could remember, before feeling nothing but cold and damp before the blank part of her memory was the only thing she could remember.

Now First Lieutenant Katelyn Raine was awake, lying within the brightly lit yet claustrophobic interior of some sort of rectangular pod. It seemed more like a coffin to her and for a moment she thought that she had been buried alive but then she realized that what coffin had a brightly lit white interior?

She put her hands up in front of her, feeling the top of the coffin-like chamber she was lying in. As if it knew that she was awake the top before her slowly began to slide open, gradually revealing a golden-brown roof high above and flame torches on the walls. The top had opened completely and hesitantly she sat up, rising above the top of the rectangular chamber she had been lying within and looking around at her immediate surroundings.

The walls were mostly golden-brown and some were covered with hieroglyphics. There was no visible door within the large chamber, giving the impression that she was stuck in here. It occurred to her that these surroundings were very much like those of a Goa'uld ship or facility, a fact that she knew spelt bad news.

Looking down she saw that she had been lying within a sarcophagus, the long rectangular device covered with gold plating and etched with all sorts of symbols and hieroglyphs. These sarcophagus devices were what kept a Goa'uld and its host alive for an indefinite period of time, able to regenerate the body and keep it young with repeated use. There were side effects however and it was generally believed that the reason the Goa'uld were so evil was because the repeated use of the sarcophagus "stole their souls".

Katelyn didn't like the idea of having part of her soul stolen from her. Sure, once in a sarcophagus was safe enough but she wasn't about to stay inside for any longer than she should.

She looked down at herself, able to see that there was a scorched hole in her uniform at her side and a similar one in the centre of her chest. However, through the holes where there should have been bleeding and charred flesh was instead perfectly healed and normal skin. Looking at these former wounds she could remember what exactly had happened the moment before she had "died". She had been hit with two staff weapon blasts from some of Khnum's Jaffa that had been hiding nearby, waiting to ambush her and the rest of the team. That had been when she had been killed, a somewhat strange sensation that she could remember barely anything about.

What had it been like to be dead? She really couldn't remember anything about it: there had been no harps, no angels, nothing. Perhaps her lack of memory about it was for good reason, although it was a little disappointing to know she wouldn't be able to tell of what it was like in the afterlife.

Katelyn knew she had to get out of wherever it was she was currently located, the Lieutenant with the feeling that she had been brought back to life with good reason. She didn't really have any clue as to what that reason was but she didn't want to stick around and find out. Slowly she climbed out of the sarcophagus, finding that her weapons had been wisely taken off of her. She did, however, find that the combat knife she always kept strapped near her left ankle hadn't been removed. The Jaffa weren't as thorough as they should have been, it seemed. She removed the knife from its sheath and hid it within her green standard-issue jacket, her vest having been confiscated as well along with the MREs and other items she had kept on it.

Katelyn noticed the viewing window across the roo and the Goa'uld control station before it. It seemed that she was most definitely in an important part of the ship, perhaps where the Goa'uld System Lord Khnum directed his ship from. Stepping towards the window, Katelyn managed a look out towards the rainforest landscape that stretched out below.

She was most definitely on board the mother-ship that had parked itself upon the mountain which housed the SDIOA facility and ancient ruins. That meant she was technically a prisoner of the Goa'uld in residence on this ship, wherever he was.

She knew she had to escape and so she started to the back wall, her mind going back to the files she had read on Goa'uld mother-ships. The controls to open the doors were often hidden, perhaps in an effort to trick prisoners and intruders such as herself. Well, it was certainly working since she had no idea on where to start looking. There were walls of hieroglyphics, most of which were probably just for show.

She began to feel along the lower hieroglyphics, trying to find any that stood out in particular.

Her search brought her to a symbol that she recognized as the ne that Khnum's Jaffa bore on their foreheads, the bull's head and horns symbol. Putting her fingers over it she found that it stuck out more than the other hieroglyphs and with a slight push the symbol tilted and the wall ahead of her slid open abruptly.

Beyond was a corridor lit with glowing torches that were hung stuck on the walls. Standing guard by the now open door were two bull helmeted Jaffa and immediately they had turned around, pointing their staff weapons squarely at her.

Katelyn simply managed a weak smile towards the Jaffa before finding the switch for the door again, tilting it back the other way. The door slid shut, keeping the Jaffa out and her inside. It was here she realized that she had little chance of escape, seeing as she had so much trouble in finding a switch for the door and that her only known way of escape was being guarded. Besides, there was nothing stopping the Jaffa from killing her again: they could dump her back in the sarcophagus and revive her.

Katelyn walked back over to the sarcophagus in question, sitting herself on it since there were no other places to sit in the room save for the floor. She wondered where the others were, if they had managed to escape or not. They probably had seeing as she was the only one she could remember being shot and killed. Jack, Daniel, Carter and Teal'c: they were probably all fine and back on Earth. They wouldn't come back to rescue her: there were far too many hostile Jaffa in the area for such a mission to be worth the risk.

It seemed that her fate would be to stay here and wait for this Khnum guy to show up. She wasn't looking forward to the meeting, especially if it meant that he would be interrogating her. Maybe that's why he had brought her back from the dead, simply to interrogate her and torture her. Katelyn wouldn't give up any information; she had been trained not to. The most Khnum would get out of her would be her name and rank and nothing more.

Katelyn had her combat knife though so maybe she could dispatch this Khnum guy when he showed up. He wouldn't be expecting it and so she would have the element of surprise when the time came.

Until then all Katelyn could do was wait. She could hope for rescue but it would undoubtedly be a vain hope, one that would provide some solace during her time in captivity here.

Katelyn had begun to quietly hum to herself while she waited for whatever was going to happen next. There was nothing else to do and chances are she might have to wait a while, especially when it came to a Goa'uld who thought he was a God. He could take all the time he wanted since he would undoubtedly be right up himself. They were all like that apparently and someone could easily piss them off, something that Katelyn intended to do to full effect when she got the chance.

After a few minutes the door did slide open, a pair of bull helmeted Jaffa marching into the room and standing to either side of the door, staff weapons held at their sides. From in between the two Jaffa warriors came a man dressed in dark robes, his brown hair kept forever its natural colour by repeated stints inside the sarcophagus. He was of medium statue and seemed to be in his early forties, although he was undoubtedly several thousand years old thanks to the use of the sarcophagus and the Goa'uld parasite that was within him and had effectively taken absolute control of the human body. There was a slight beard at the chin, giving him a rather authoritative look.

Katelyn could tell from the look in his eyes that he was expecting her to bow before him or something. Instead, Katelyn hopped off her sitting spot on top of the sarcophagus and looked towards the System Lord, chuckling slightly.

"You know, I was expecting someone who would actually look like an evil overlord," she said, trying her best to come across as condescending, "instead, you sort of look like a parking inspector or a car salesman…I mean, where's your glowing evil eyes and your aura of evil?"

This slight insult seemed to strike a chord in the man and immediately he had brought up his left hand, revealing that he was wearing one of the golden ribbon devices that Katelyn had read about in some documents before she had arrived at the SGC. The ribbon device was worn on the left hand and was capable of focusing thought control from the user with such power that it could send someone flying backwards. It was also capable of inflicting considerable pain on the victim, something that Katelyn had a feeling would happen to her soon enough. The one requirement to use a ribbon device was that the user had to have naquadah in their bloodstream, something only hosts to Goa'uld symbiotes had.

"You dare insult your God?" The man barked, his voice deep and unhuman, carrying the distinct flanging that made it clear that the Goa'uld inside him was the one speaking. No doubt the human who had once controlled the body had been suppressed for thousands of years. It was very likely that the original human consciousness that had once owned the body had gone insane from thousands of years of torment. Katelyn couldn't imagine having absolutely no control over her body whilst able to witness the horrendous things the Goa'uld enjoyed doing.

"Uh, yeah…" Katelyn trailed off, trying to think of something else to say. No doubt Jack would be rattling off the insults but unfortunately he wasn't here to help her with this aspect.

"I have kept you alive for a few reasons," the deep flanged voice continued, the man's eyes examining her in a way that suggested he thought of her as insignificant cattle. That was probably precisely what he thought of her.

"For one, you will make a welcome source of information," the Goa'uld continued, "which brings me to why I'm here now." He paused, thinking for a moment. "You will tell me what you know of the artefact that was housed within the mountain and why it is no longer where I left it…And you will tell me of the Tauri and its defences. Is that clear?"

Katelyn didn't like the tone this guy was giving her. If he was going to torture her then she may as well let him since there was no way in hell that she would be giving up any important information. She didn't like the idea of getting tortured but it was probably her own fault for getting into this situation. Perhaps if she had been a little more careful back in the forest she might not have gotten shot and recovered by Jaffa warriors, getting brought back from the dead by a sarcophagus.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," Katelyn said bluntly, eyeing the System Lord, "so you can dump your ideas of interrogating me. It isn't going to work whatsoever…"

The System Lord smiled malevolently, as if he had something far worse than torture planned. Katelyn didn't like the look he was giving her but then again she didn't like anything about the man.

"So, uh, what's your name?" Katelyn asked in an attempt to lighten the mood a little despite the situation she had fund herself in, "Khnom, isn't it?"

"I am Khnum, ruler of this domain," the System Lord said with some noticeable agitation, "and you will treat me as such, as will the rest of your pathetic Tauri race."

"Right…"

"Silence!" Khnum barked this order loudly and abruptly, enough to send anybody silent.

Katelyn could tell that Khnum hadn't been insulted much in the past, making it all the more easily to ruffle his feathers in a figurative fashion. Katelyn stood waiting for him to say something, surprised when he turned around and started out of the room.

"Follow me," he ordered, the two bull-helmeted Jaffa who were with him training their staff weapons on her, "I wouldn't want my Jaffa to kill you again."

Katelyn rolled her eyes at the comment, deciding it best that she go ahead and follow the Goa'uld System Lord. The two Jaffa warriors kept behind her, making sure that she had no chance of trying any sort of escape.

Katelyn had more or less resigned herself to her fate for now, keeping in mind the combat knife she had hidden within her uniform. She had not been met with the perfect opportunity to use it yet and so would wait until that opportunity arrived. Until then she would have to put up with whatever Khnum happened to throw at her.

The group made their way through a corridor on board the mother-ship, passing Jaffa bowing their heads respectfully towards their leader. In all, it seemed that Khnum had a healthy operation here and that his last thousand years on the run hadn't been unproductive. He had legions of Jaffa under his command and a moderately sized fleet, more than enough to cement his position as a major player in the System Lords collective.

The group arrived in a large chamber, one that seemed to house several containers. At one end was a viewport that looked out over the rainforest landscape outside while near it was some sort of small glowing and glass tank, one that contained some sort of moving thing but Katelyn could not determine what. She could see that it was night outside, distant fires burning from battles being waged between Jaffa and local humans.

Khnum stopped near a central pedestal and with one hand tapped away at a control panel at the pedestal. A door slid open at the left, revealing a small antechamber. Inside was the nuke that the SG teams had brought with them to the world under orders from General Robards. Obviously Khnum's Jaffa had found it and taken it to his ship. No doubt Khnum would try and find some use for it.

"You will tell me what you know of the artefact," Khnum said, turning around to look at Katelyn.

Katelyn simply frowned, trying to figure out just what Khnum was planning to do with her. The two Jaffa warriors that had been escorting her were now standing guard by the door behind her, the door itself sliding shut as Khnum spoke.

Katelyn tried not to make eye contact with Khnum whilst attempting to compose herself regardless of the situation she was in.

"The artefact? You mean, the thing that Roland was after?" She knew that Khnum would have no idea who Roland was, something she could use to her advantage. She didn't actually know anything about the artefact but she would try and make it sound like she did. This was more to stall herself from getting tortured than for any other reason.

"Roland? Who is he?" Khnum frowned upon hearing this name mentioned, having no clue as to who it was.

"Oh…he's just a guy who came from the future with an army and stole the artefact," Katelyn said, satisfied with the disbelieving look Khnum now had on his face, "and now he's escaped with it and I don't know where…"

"You don't know?" Khnum said this slowly, as if trying to contain some inner rage that was threatening to explode out of him at any moment. Katelyn could see this by the forced look he had on his face. "How could you not know?"

"I sort of missed my chance to find out," Katelyn said, recalling the firefight she and the team had had against the synthetic soldiers in the mountain facility's gate room.

Khnum motioned to the pair of Jaffa standing guard at the door. One of them left the room and returned a few seconds later with another two Jaffa warriors in tow. However, these two new Jaffa warriors had a pair of recognizable captives with them, their hands bound as they were brought into the room and forced onto their knees.

Katelyn was surprised to see them both and it seemed the feeling was shared.

"Colonel? Captain?" Katelyn realized that maybe she wasn't so alone in this anymore.

Colonel Jack O'Neill looked suitably exhausted with cuts and bruises on his face from recent fights. Once the Jaffa warrior escorting him had set him down, Jack made sure to spit on the floor near the warrior's foot. However, this move was met by a blow from the butt of the Jaffa warrior's staff weapon into the lower of Jack's back. Groaning, Jack only just kept his stance as he regarded the Lieutenant with some surprise.

The other captive was Captain Samantha Carter, looking fairly beat up herself. She seemed surprised to see the Lieutenant alive and well but such a resurrection wasn't so hard to believe anymore.

"Ah, Lieutenant…" Jack began to talk only to be hit again by the Jaffa standing near him, ending his sentence abruptly. Katelyn knew that Khnum would undoubtedly use these two captives against her and the last thing she needed was to have their deaths on her conscience.

"That sort of hurt," Jack said under his breath, recovering from the blow.

Khnum seemed satisfied with the circumstances and so looked at Katelyn, waiting once her attention was back on him before he began to talk.

"As you can see, I have captured two of your fellow Tauri warriors," Khnum said, obviously referring to Jack and Sam, "and I will hurt them if you do not tell me what I want to know…"

"Don't tell him anything," Jack said aloud, only to be hit by the Jaffa standing behind him once again. He grunted, already getting used to the beatings he had been receiving of late.

"I was not expecting three people from the Tauri to be here," Khnum said as he stepped towards the two kneeling captives. He regarded them both with a malevolent look that sent a slight chill down Katelyn's spine. There was definitely something about this guy she did not like.

"Since I learnt of your presence here I had wished to capture at least one of you," Khnum said, "and now it seems I have three. And one of whom is the legendary O'Neill, one of the humans responsible for killing Ra." He eyed Jack O'Neill carefully while the Colonel simply eyed him back.

"I must thank you," Khnum said, looking down at Jack in a somewhat condescending fashion, "if it was not for your actions, Ra would not be dead and I would still be on the run."

He turned around, shifting his attention back towards Katelyn. He approached her, close enough so that the Lieutenant could smell his breath. It wasn't too pleasing a smell.

"And now it seems I have the perfect host vessel for my queen," Khnum said. It took Katelyn only a second for her to realize that he was referring to her.

_Host vessel?_ She did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. In fact, Khnum was so close to her now that she figured that she had the perfect opportunity to attack…

Khnum suddenly reached into Katelyn's jacket and removed the combat knife she had stored there, dropping it to the floor while smiling to himself. Katelyn was aghast but she kept her composure, realizing then that she was probably screwed.

"Don't think I am not aware of such tricks," Khnum said, "besides, I have encountered far more dangerous enemies than you three."

"More dangerous than us?" Jack called out from behind, laughing, "I don't think that's even remotely possible…"

Khnum ignored him, keeping his gaze fixed on Katelyn. The Lieutenant had the feeling that he was probably thinking over what he could do to her and what he could ask her and Katelyn didn't like any of the possibilities she herself could think of.

"Where is the artefact?" He asked bluntly, face-to-face with Katelyn.

"I don't know," the Lieutenant replied, her voice wavering only slightly.

Upon hearing this response Khnum turned around, walking up to Carter. He had raised his left hand which wore the ribbon device and held it a short distance from the Captain's forehead.

"Where is it?" Khnum asked, glancing back at Katelyn.

Katelyn and Carter's eyes met for a moment and the Captain simply shook her head, as if resigned to her fate.

"She doesn't know," Jack said, obviously against the idea of torturing Carter. Immediately the Jaffa behind the Colonel clubbed him in the back with his staff weapon again, sending Jack onto the floor grunting with pain.

"_Will you stop doing that?!_" Jack demanded at the Jaffa in between grunts. He slowly went back onto his knees, keeping watch on Carter as the situation unfolded before him.

"Where is the artefact?" Khnum demanded, not believing that Katelyn didn't know. The truth was that Katelyn _had no idea_ where the artefact was. She didn't even know what it looked like; having only seen the case that Roland had transported it in.

"I don't know!" Katelyn exclaimed, unable to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

Khnum wasn't satisfied with this answer and with a slight movement of the left hand emitted a stream of paralysing energy from the jewel within the ribbon device. This energy stream caught Carter directly in the forehead. Carter groaned in pain but was unable to move while under the device's influence, left paralysed just to continue feeling the pain.

"Tell me where it is!" Khnum glared at her, not letting up on the ribbon device in any way whatsoever.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Katelyn was yelling now, realizing that she wasn't getting through to Khnum at all. She had the feeling that Khnum was in denial, having come all this way to this crappy insignificant planet only to find that what he was looking for had been taken away moments before his arrival.

"Stop it!" Jack shouted, "You'll kill her!"

Finally Khnum let up, releasing his hold of Carter through the ribbon device. The Captain slumped to the floor, a few noticeable bloody red splotches on her forehead where the device's energy stream had connected. Khnum lowered his left hand, turning to Katelyn with anger in his eyes.

"It is no matter," he said, his voice laced with anger, "I will find out where it is eventually. Until then, I have more pressing issues." He eyed Katelyn when he said this, obviously thinking something over.

Katelyn took the chance to calm down a little, taking a few deep breaths in order to compose herself. Carter was on the floor but still breathing, merely unconscious. Jack was shaking his head, trying to work out how he had ended up in this situation.

"Some of my Jaffa found the destructive weapon you brought with you through the chaapa'ai," Khnum said, gesturing towards the nuke which lay in the adjoining room, "I have considered that maybe it would make an excellent gift for those of your kind who are back on the Tauri, awaiting your return."

Neither Jack nor Katelyn were about to mention the iris that was on the stargate back at the SGC. Mentioning such a device would only have resulted in more interrogation, mainly for the codes to have the iris opened.

"However, I hear that the stargate on the Tauri is fitted with a device that prevents unwanted travellers from passing through," Khnum said, revealing that he had a startling knowledge of the Earth's immediate defences, "hence, I will need the codes to open this 'iris' of yours. Something tells me you will not tell me willingly, hence why I have kept your alive." He looked at Katelyn, obviously referring to her and why he had kept her alive.

He made his way to the tank set in the wall which was filled with water. Katelyn could make out something moving about inside; she wasn't too sure what it was. She had the feeling she wouldn't like to find out, although it seemed Khnum was about to show her anyway.

"I have been planning my return for quite some time," Khnum began as he arrived at the glass water tank that was set in the wall. Katelyn and Jack watched him, both of the humans from the Tauri having a strong dislike for the System Lord. What was to like about a snakehead who thought he was some kind of God and was so far up himself it shouldn't be legal?

"Hence I have had my Jaffa transport the planet's stargate onto this ship to allow for easier movement of my soldiers. As well as this I have decided to hold a gathering in the nearby town in order to enforce my rule upon the local people."

With one arm Khnum reached into the tank and removed the writhing snake-like creature that had been swimming around inside. It took Katelyn a moment to realize what it was, having never actually seen one before. Khnum came walking towards her with the Goa'uld symbiote clutched in his right hand.  
The creature was more or less the equivalent of an amphibian snake, a dark mottled green with two dorsal fins and a quadruple hinged jaw. Four small red eyes scanned the room for a possible host and the creature hissed quietly as Khnum stopped before the Lieutenant, the Goa'uld struggling in his hands.

Katelyn glared at it, having the feeling that Khnum intended the creature for her. She wasn't about to let that happen though but she realized that she was sort of at a loss of options. She glanced towards Jack who simply gave a repulsed look when he saw the Goa'uld held in Khnum's hands. He obviously didn't like them very much.

"You would make a perfect host," Khnum commented, holding the alien snake close to Katelyn's face. She stepped back, repulsed as it squealed near her ear, attempting to struggle free and plunge into her neck. Khnum kept it held tightly, ensuring that it didn't break free of his grasp.

"However, I still have something else planned for you," Khnum said, lowering the Goa'uld symbiote as it squealed with some contempt. Katelyn took a deep breath, realizing that she was close to becoming a mere slave to that creature.

"What?" She asked, weakness creeping into her voice. Khnum noticed this and smiled, able to see that his actions were having an effect on the once fiery soldier.

"Don't let him get to you, Kate," Jack said from where he knelt, "he's just another cocky snakehead. I'm sure we'll get out of this one…"

Again the Jaffa standing behind Jack clubbed him in the back with his staff weapon and again Jack was on the floor, grunting from the pain he received from the blow. It seemed to be getting old for the Colonel though and this time he didn't bother getting back up, instead staying on the floor as he watched Katelyn and Khnum.

"Tomorrow, at dawn, you will kill your friends," Khnum said, nodding towards Jack and the unconscious Carter, "and you will do it in front of the people of the nearby town. You will show them that I am in control and that they can seek no help from the Tauri."

Khnum's eyes narrowed and Katelyn's heart skipped a beat when what the System Lord was saying registered in her mind.

"You will show them that I am their only God," Khnum said, his voice edged with a sinister tone, "and I will enjoy seeing the anguish on your face when you carry out the task."

He paused, more for emphasis than anything else. Katelyn was somewhat worried now, trying her best to keep her composure as the ever menacing Khnum leaned towards her, his voice and its tone perfectly clear. Katelyn had no intention of letting any of what Khnum said happen but she had better start working on her escape otherwise she might just end up with a snake in her head.

"You will be my queen and you and I will rule over this world and many others together," Khnum said, his tone serious and sinister, "and you will tell me everything you know of the Tauri and the excellent thing is…I won't even have to ask."


	30. Procession

**Chapter Twenty-eight: Procession**

**Location: **P5H-734

The nights here were freezing cold, especially in this season of somewhat dreary weather. The dark grey clouds above had parted mostly, leaving the vast array of stars visible on the night sky for all below to behold. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence in a wilderness area such as this for stars to quite literally fill the sky since there were n bustling cities nearby with multitudes of lights to drown out the glow of most of the stars, as was the case in parts of Earth.

Now it had begun to reach morning, the fourteen hour night having flowed along nicely. The sounds of battle had since died down and it was safe to assume that Khnum's forces more or less controlled the region. The local population would now have to accept Khnum's rule and the constant oppression the Goa'uld enforced on the population.

There was one sun, a fairly young and hot one that rose over the valley and cast its scorching glare down onto the rainforest. The wet weather had gone, leaving floods and muddy plains behind. This sun would dry up everything, it seemed, creating a very different day when compared to the previous few.

It seemed that it would not be very cold today, something that Daniel Jackson was slightly grateful for. No longer would he have to put up with wet weather and thick mud for the remainder of their stay here, just as long as the sun stayed out. Perhaps the lighter weather hinted at a better day overall, one where they wouldn't end up taking losses from the hordes of Jaffa that were wandering around the region. So far Jack and Katelyn were officially missing in action while Carter had headed off to get back to the stargate out in the clearing. It was unknown whether or not she had succeeded and Daniel had the feeling that he wouldn't know for a while.

With Daniel was Teal'c and the pair had set off late the day before to return to the mountain base where the Goa'uld mother-ship was positioned, their intention being to watch the movements of the enemy Jaffa and look for any sign of either Jack or Katelyn. Teal'c had been up close to all night watching from their vantage point on a nearby ridge which gave them a good view of the area around the base of the mountain.

Khnum's Jaffa had since set up encampments and had begun to herd locals into groups to resume mining the naquadah deposits within the mountain. It seemed they had wasted no time in order to enforce their rule here and get the civilians to work on furthering Khnum's resources. The naquadah deposits here were rich and barely mined, thus this planet would be of a vital strategic value.

Daniel had fallen asleep against a fallen tree, lying amongst the undergrowth and trying to get as comfortable as he could. Several times during the night he had awoken from the many strange noises a forest on an alien planet provided, occasionally thinking that they had been discovered by enemy Jaffa but finding that it was merely some animal calling in the dark. Bugs had crawled over the archaeologist as he had slept and some were resting on his uniform now, inclining the archaeologist to brush them off with some disgust.

Teal'c had taken only some short rest, preferring to keep his eyes on the enemy positions below. He was currently watching through binoculars, attempting to discern the patterns the enemy Jaffa made at the base of the mountain. There would have to be an opening somewhere, they both knew this, it was just a matter of determining where that opening was.

Teal'c noticed that Daniel was awake and lowered the binoculars, turning to the archaeologist. Daniel sat up, gathering his bearings and rubbing the sleep that had congealed in the corners of his eyes. He looked down at himself, seeing that he was quite dirty and that there were a few alien bugs crawling over him. He brushed off the more nasty looking ones and was in the process of finishing this act off when he heard a rustle in the undergrowth to his right.

A single look there revealed a small green lizard like creature, its neck opening in a threatening frill much like the Australian frill-necked lizard. It chirped, trying its best to scare the archaeologist. Daniel was only slightly perturbed by the small creature and shook one hand at it.

"Shoo!"

The creature turned around and scuttled off into the undergrowth, disappearing from view. With that problem settled, Daniel turned to Teal'c, trying to determine from his face if anything had changed since their arrival in this particular post. Teal'c was, as usual, next to expressionless.

"Did you find anything?" Daniel asked, turning around and looking down the ridge towards the large clearings that surrounded the mountain. It seemed that the Jaffa had been clearing the forest around the mountain using some sort of energy devices that were capable of incinerating trees without starting fires, just another one of the wonders of Goa'uld technology. They seemed to be making space for mining camps which some of the locals had already been put to work at building. A river flowed through one of the larger clearings while another of the energy devices took out another section of rainforest nearby.

Teal'c shook his head in response to Daniel's question, obviously dissatisfied with all that he had observed during the night.

"I have discovered nothing that will help us in our search for Colonel O'Neill and Lieutenant Raine," Teal'c said, "however, it seems that Khnum's Jaffa have already begun setting up camps and putting the local people to work. They have also set up a defensive perimeter around the mountain, one that will undoubtedly have many patrols. Getting to the mountain and on board Khnum's ship will not be easy."

"It never is," Daniel replied. Teal'c nodded, agreeing with this statement. Most of their more complicated missions had never turned out to be easy, especially when the Goa'uld were involved.

Above, a pair of death gliders zoomed up high. Daniel instinctively ducked into the undergrowth but he saw that such a move was unnecessary, the death gliders showing no sign that they had spotted the two intruders on the ground below. It was safe to assume that the enemy forces here didn't even know of Daniel's and Teal'c's presence here. If that was the case then the pair could move about much more freely.

"Any word from Carter?" Daniel asked, although the answer was fairly obvious.

Teal'c shook his head. Even if Carter had wanted to contact them chances are the interference in the region would have prevented such a thing from being done. If Carter had made it back to Earth she probably would have returned by now, unless General Robards was simply going to leave the rest of SG-1 on the planet to die. He seemed the type and chances are he may even detonate the nuke remotely through an open wormhole.

Teal'c returned his gaze through his binoculars, peering down towards the hastily made clearings around the mountain and the encampments that had been set up. Suddenly his attention seemed to peak considerably and he lowered the binoculars, pointing to one spot below in particular whilst handing the binoculars to Daniel.  
Daniel took them, raising an eyebrow and awaiting an explanation for whatever it was that Teal'c had seen.

"Down there, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said and even without the binoculars Daniel could see what he was referring to.

Below, in the larger of the clearings, a crowd was forming. Most were local human inhabitants and they had begun to gather around a certain spot as several Jaffa came marching into the clearing as well. Most were wearing the bull's head helmets that signified their position as Khnum's personal bodyguard unit. They had grouped around a particular spot at a bend in the river that flowed nearby that was in plain view of the crowding locals.

Daniel continued to watch as an oversized death glider, one that looked more like a troop carrier than anything else (much like the one that attacked them during their escape from Chulak the first time around) hovered into position over the clearing. From its underbelly shot the five rings of a ring transporter which in turn descended onto the clearing. There was a brief flash within the rings and two bull helmeted Jaffa and a tall imposing man in dark robes and wearing a face concealing bull helmet appeared. There was no doubt in Daniel's mind that the man in the robes was Khnum and seemed to be hosting some sort of large scale gathering.

He and his escorting Jaffa stepped forwards once the rings had ascended and as soon as they were clear the ring transporter shot down again, teleporting in two more Jaffa that were accompanying three familiar figures. Daniel exchanged glances with Teal'c when he saw who the three figures were.

Teal'c had been watching just as intently as Daniel. Daniel handed him the binoculars, allowing him to take a more detailed look at what was happening down below in the clearing. The death glider that had brought Khnum and his three prisoners zoomed away, heading back for the mother-ship parked upon the mountain nearby.

"It's Katelyn," Daniel said, watching the scene below, "and Jack and Sam. What strikes me as odd is how Katelyn isn't tied up while Jack and Sam are…"

Teal'c surveyed the situation through the binoculars, deciding for himself what could be happening. Daniel was already thinking that maybe it was some special sort of gathering, a procession of sorts. Teal'c lowered the binoculars, his mind already working overtime on how to get down there and free the others.

"It is Khnum," Teal'c said with some realization, "he is holding a gathering in order to cement his power over the local population. It appears that Lieutenant Raine is a part of his plans."  
Daniel remembered the original mission to Abydos when Ra had almost made him kill Jack, Kawalsky and the others. This situation was undoubtedly similar, except Katelyn would be made to kill Jack and Sam. This act was probably to demoralize the local population and show them just how powerful Khnum was. The Tauri would apparently be of no help to them. Of course, Khnum had no idea that there were still two intruders in the region.

"We have to rescue them," Daniel said, stating the obvious. Teal'c nodded in agreement but they both knew that such an undertaking would have to be done fast and with precision. There would be many Jaffa between them and where the procession was taking place, a definite obstacle in their intended rescue.

"We must leave now," Teal'c said, standing up and picking up his staff weapon which had been lying against a fallen tree nearby.

Daniel, still tired from the events of the day before, struggled to rise to his feet. He stretched and yawned loudly, realizing that he hadn't had a decent night's sleep for days. This whole mission had been taking its tool on all of them except for Teal'c who seemed the least tired of all of them. He had probably been in tougher situations and was probably used to not having slept for days.

"Follow my lead, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, starting into the forest. Daniel followed, making sure to ready his Beretta pistol just in case they came across any of Khnum's Jaffa. No doubt they would if they kept up their pace, Teal'c charging through the forest with renewed tenacity. Daniel struggled to keep up, taking note of how they had begun to head down the slope of the ridge. That meant they were heading in the right direction, which was good…or bad, depending on how someone looked at it.

Teal'c brushed aside the thick undergrowth, leaving it to spring back into Daniel's face. Ignoring these slight annoyances Daniel kept up a few metres behind Teal'c who seemed to be having no trouble in barging his way through the rainforest, leaping over slight ditches and fallen trees. Daniel was already getting tired out but he knew that stopping would only heighten their chances of not arriving at the procession in time.

It occurred to him that even if they got there, what would they do? They would be outnumbered and outgunned whilst facing a Goa'uld System Lord himself. And somehow they would have to make sure to not shoot any of the civilians in the area as well, something that would only complicate matters further.

Teal'c jumped through a gap in the undergrowth, landing a small cleared area a short distance from where the procession was taking place. Daniel soon followed him into the clearing, finding that they had almost literally bumped into two bull's head helmeted Jaffa that had been patrolling the area.

Immediately Teal'c sprang into action, using the end of his staff weapon like a club as he swung and blocked the attacks of the other two Jaffa with relative ease. Daniel raised his Beretta pistol but found it hard to keep track of the targets, realizing that he was perhaps better off letting Teal'c handle the fight.

Teal'c slammed the butt of his staff weapon into the side of one of the Jaffa, sending him tumbling off to the side. The other Jaffa came lunging towards him from the opposite direction but Teal'c reacted much faster than his opponent, using his staff weapon to trip him up. When the Jaffa was down Teal'c brought the end of his staff weapon into the chest of the Jaffa with enough force to break a few ribs, which was probably what happened.

With the two Jaffa neutralized Daniel was free to walk into the area, able to see that Teal'c was even short of breath after the fight. The pair considered their options for a moment, Daniel thinking that if Carter had been captured then their reinforcements weren't going to come. It was up to the two of them now and they would have to ensure they didn't stuff up. It was a lot of pressure, especially since they were up against overwhelming odds.

Teal'c looked thoughtfully at the two unconscious Jaffa, as if he was running a plan through his mind. Daniel had also begun to think the same thing, realizing that maybe they had some hope yet to rescue their friends.

"I have a plan, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c announced, somewhat confidently, "simply follow my instructions and it should succeed."

* * *

There must have been at least five thousand people grouped in the clearing, standing near the river that ran through part of it. All of them were of the planet's local population and some seemed downright miserable since their peaceful lives had been shattered by the arrival of Khnum and his forces.

Regardless they were here now and they were about to be treated to an example of their new overload's wrath. Khnum stood on a hastily erected metal stand, overlooking the crowd before him. He seemed to be taking his time, probably trying to figure out what was on the minds of the large crowd before him. As with all Goa'uld like him, Khnum was understandably cocky and expected to be treated like a God by those beneath him. That meant no trouble from any of these pathetic civilians and if there was any it would be answered to with brutal force.

Several of Khnum's bull's head helmeted Jaffa stood guard at the edges of the clearing, their staff weapons raised in order to prevent any possible rebellions by the civilians grouped here. The people of the nearby town had fought back when Khnum's forces had descended although some had willingly accepted him as their God. It seemed that their legends had mentioned that he would return one day to bring down his wrath upon those who did not believe in him and it seemed that those legends and predictions had become true. He had returned and he was prepared to bring his wrath down upon any non-believers within the local population.

It had been exactly one thousand, one hundred and seventy-two years ago (give or take a few days) when Ra had put a price upon Khnum's head in order to have him killed. Khnum had been crafty and cunning enough to go on the run, taking his fleet with him. He often visited Jaffa inhabited worlds to replenish his forces when necessary while raids of naquadah mining worlds kept his forces well equipped and his ships fuelled. For the last thousand years life had been a little trickier than before, Khnum coming close to getting killed on many occasions. His brushes with death had taught him many things, such as the tricks that his opponents often pulled to try and kill him.

Now Ra was dead, killed by warriors from the Tauri. Not only that but the power-vacuum left by the absence of Ra had destabilized the System Lord collective, allowing figures such as Apophis and Heru'ur to come to more power than they had previously been allowed to. Upon hearing the news of Ra's death Khnum had returned to the limelight, knocking off a few minor System Lords and absorbing their forces into his own. Now he had almost as much power as Apophis and intended to use it, what for he wasn't sure just yet.

The Tauri seemed a good place to start though. Not only had it been the warriors from the Tauri that had denied him his chance to reclaim the artefact from this world, the very one he had been forced to leave behind when he first went on the run, but it seemed that they had chanced upon this world at about the same time as his return. They had interfered to say the least and so they would be punished.

Such an act of punishment would make an excellent public display, one that would show the local inhabitants of this world what happened to those who defied him. That is why he was holding this gathering, or procession or whatever one wanted to call it. Five thousand people from the nearby town would see what happened to those who dared go against him and they would in turn spread the word of Khnum's wrath to the other inhabitants who had missed the show.

Behind him were the three from the Tauri, two of which had their hands bound and were on their knees. The other, the young female, was standing with two Jaffa near her in order to prevent her from getting any thoughts in her head about an escape.

The female was Katelyn Raine and she was understandably annoyed at the situation she now found herself in. Not only was she about to be forced to kill two fellow team members but she would end up with a snake in her head, something she wasn't looking forward to in the slightest way. However, chances were that if she did not do this she would simply be killed and so would Jack and Carter, except Katelyn would be revived by a sarcophagus for Khnum's own purposes. It seemed that not even death could save her, unless she could somehow kill Khnum or escape from this procession she had found herself in.

She stood with a straight face though, her uniform dirty and worn in places. She still bore the scorch marks from her last brush with death, one that had claimed her only for her to be brought back to life to endure what Khnum had planned for her.

_There's always a way out of a situation,_ she thought, remembering what previous mentors had told her. If she ever found herself in a sticky situation such as this there was always a way out, no matter how dire the circumstances. She had been taught to never give in, no matter the pressure so she wasn't about to start.

Jack was on his knees, his hands bound behind his back. Katelyn managed to make eye contact with him, the Lieutenant able to see that Jack wasn't too pleased with his fate either. He was the one to break the brief moment of eye contact, spitting off to one side. He was probably trying to figure out a method of escape as well.

Carter was keeping a straight expression, not letting the dire situation she was in affect her judgement. She and Jack hadn't said a word since they had been brought out here, both with a good indication that whatever happened, Katelyn wouldn't be the one to kill them. Just because it was what Khnum wanted it didn't mean it's what would happen.

Katelyn was already trying to decide on what to do, looking at the bull's head helmeted Khnum and the Jaffa standing guard nearby. There must have been a way out of this situation, a way she just hadn't found yet.

"Behold, people of Taleria!" Khnum announced, his voice slightly amplified by the bull's head helmet he was wearing. No doubt he was wearing it to conceal his all too human features in order to further fuel the perception that he was some sort of God. According to what Katelyn had read, Ra had used the same sort of thing against the people of Abydos. A faceless ruler was a fearsome ruler, apparently.

"I am Khnum, your one and only God!" Khnum's voice had a trace of amusement, enough to tell Katelyn that the System Lord was enjoying his return to power. Enslaving native populations was probably something he had missed for the last thousand years, so getting back into it would undoubtedly be a satisfying experience.

Jack rolled his eyes when he heard what Khnum said, unamused by the situation. There was no doubt in his mind about what he would do if he wasn't tied up and that would be to go ahead and do whatever it took to silence Khnum for good.

"I have returned to reclaim this world," Khnum continued, his voice echoing loudly throughout the clearing, "Those of you who have worshipped me during my absence will be well rewarded! However, those of you who resist me shall be punished severely.

"This is why I have gathered you all here today," Khnum said, pausing for emphasis, "for I have with me two non-believers who dared to defy your God! And, as a direct result, they shall be punished in the harshest possible manner…"

Khnum seemed to be enjoying this speech of his and even though it was self-promoting it seemed to have caught the attention of everybody in the clearing, including the loyal Jaffa who seemed in awe of their leader. To Katelyn, Jack and Carter the whole thing was one big sham. Khnum wasn't a god: he was merely a human who had been possessed by an alien parasite that _thought_ it was a god. There was a big difference between that and an actual god, no doubt.

"They shall be put to death!" Khnum roared, "And you will all be witness to this act! This shall show you that anyone who defies me meets with a gruesome fate, one that I have no qualms with dealing out!"

There was a pause as the pair of Jaffa standing near Jack and Carter hoisted up the two captives and brought them forwards onto the metal platform, Khnum stepping back as the two captives were put in front of the crowd.

Some of the crowd booed while others threw stones. These were probably the more loyal civilians who were doing this, most of the other remaining silent as they watched events unfold before them. Jack seemed resigned to his fate; as if he knew there was no possible way out of this one.

Katelyn was pushed forwards by the Jaffa standing near her, a staff weapon thrust into her grip as the Jaffa warrior brought her behind the two kneeling captives. Khnum watched closely, his face impossible to read through the dark metal bull's head mask he wore. It was impossible to determine what he was thinking through that mask, creating a much more imposing figure than usual.

"I give you two warriors from the Tauri!" Khnum announced, gesturing towards the kneeling Jack and Carter, "they came here and dared to defy me, and so they shall die as a direct result of this. The one to kill them…a fellow warrior, one who will soon become my queen!"

Katelyn realized all eyes were focused on her. She had never been one for public speaking so she remained silent whilst contemplating what she should and could in fact do. The staff weapon seemed heavy in her grip, much heavier than it should have been. It occurred to her that she had no way of escape: even death would not save her from her eventual fate. It seemed she was destined to whatever Khnum had planned for her.

"Kill them both!" Khnum barked at her and Katelyn stepped forward, raising the staff weapon and pointing it at the back of Jack's head.

She was sweating now, the heat of the sun becoming far more pronounced than it had before. Her grip on the staff weapon shook as she considered what to do. What should actually kill Jack and Carter? It was a definite dilemma, one that was making her shake like a leaf.

"Kill them!" Khnum yelled at her, agitation audible in his voice, "otherwise I will torture them…but I won't kill them. That act will be solely yours to do."

"Don't make a mess," Jack said, only for the Jaffa standing to his left to whack him in the face with the butt-end of his staff weapon. Jack shook off the blow, trying his best to keep a straight and narrow mind as the situation became ever more tense.

Katelyn flicked the switch on the staff weapon which readied it to fire, the four sections of the firing end opening up slightly as energy surged through them. The weapon was ready to fire; all she had to do was pull the trigger.

Behind them, there was a shout and all of a sudden there was an explosion near them. One of the Jaffa warriors was blasted off of the platform and immediately everyone's attention had gone to the source of the shot.

"Now would be an excellent time to act, Daniel Jackson!" One of the bull helmeted Jaffa behind them announced this loudly, springing one of the other nearby bull helmeted Jaffa warriors into action. Both their staff weapons came up and they immediately began cutting down the enemy Jaffa nearby.

Khnum shouted with rage as a blast flew towards him, a quick press of a button at his ribbon device activating a kinetic barrier which absorbed the blast and left him unharmed. Katelyn swivelled around and blasted the nearest Jaffa with her staff weapon, sending him falling backwards off of the platform and into the waters of the river below.

The crowd had begun to disperse, people running away in terror which simply added to the overall confusion in the clearing. The other Jaffa in the clearing had begun to make their way towards the source of the attack but since their enemy was disguised they hesitated in firing, unsure of just who to shoot.

Jack and Carter stood up, Jack charging into Khnum and knocking him off of the platform. The System Lord's shield only deflected fast moving objects such as bullets so someone lunging into him wasn't blocked. Khnum fell into the waters below; Jack stopping before the edge of the raised platform as the two Jaffa that had first opened fire came running up the platform.

Jack looked down again and saw that Khnum had gone. He swore loudly, ducking as one of the Jaffa across the river fired in his direction. The two friendly Jaffa shifted their aim towards the enemy Jaffa across the river and returned fire, cutting down several of them as hordes of local inhabitants fled from the clearing.

Nearby, the large troop transport glider had arrived again. Stepping out of the river was Khnum, his helmet off as he managed one smug glance towards the humans. Katelyn saw him and shifted her aim, firing a few shots just as the transporter rings descended from the troop carrier glider. The rings were barely scratched by the blasts, Khnum disappearing in a flash as the rings ascended back up into the base of the glider.

The glider itself turned around and began flying back to the mother-ship parked on the mountain in the distance. It seemed that Khnum had escaped, but this was one escape Katelyn wasn't about to let slide.

The two Jaffa now standing on the platform with them seemed to relax, the enemy Jaffa in the area either having retreated or were lying dead. Both Jaffa opened the visors of their helmets, revealing them to be Daniel and Teal'c respectfully. Teal'c didn't look at all flustered while Daniel looked uncomfortable.  
"My butt is really chafing me now," Daniel commented, more to himself than anyone else.

Teal'c took out a combat knife and cut the bonds that had tied Jack's and Carter's hands. Now able to move, Jack and Carter flexed their hands and gathered up a staff weapon each from the nearby dead Jaffa.

Katelyn lowered her weapon when she saw that Khnum had gone, knowing full well that he was headed back to the mother-ship.

"In the nick of time, you two," Jack said, smiling as he turned to look at the disguised Daniel and Teal'c, "for a moment there I thought the Lieutenant was really going to shoot me. Who's idea was it to disguise yourselves?"

"Teal'c thought of it," Daniel said, scratching at his armoured behind, "I would never have considered dressing up as a Jaffa. These armour suits smell bad and are tight around the crotch."

"Well, enough talking," Katelyn interjected, deciding that they were wasting enough time as it was, "Khnum's getting away. Now's our chance to get him…"  
"And how do we do that?" Carter asked, frowning, "we're outnumbered. Our best bet is to head back to the stargate…"  
"Which is on Khnum's ship now," Katelyn said, smiling when she saw that Carter only realized this at the last moment, "the only way we're going to even get off of this planet is if we board Khnum's ship. While we're there, we may as well kill the bastard."

Jack nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly to this idea. Killing Khnum would definitely help them out in the long run, leaving one less snakehead megalomaniac in the galaxy.

"I agree," he said bluntly, "trouble is, we need some sort of plan to get aboard…"  
"Teal'c and I can keep these disguises on," Daniel suggested, figuring that since he and Teal'c were dressed as Jaffa they may as well use this advantage to its full potential, "they'll probably be on the lookout for suspicious Jaffa but if we keep our distance from the others we might be able to get on board before we're discovered…."

"Or we can all dress up as Jaffa. Then we'll shoot our way through once we're on board Khnum's ship," Katelyn added, "but when it comes to killing Khnum, no one does it but me."

This comment seemed to send everyone quiet. Katelyn realized she probably sounded like someone with a vendetta when it came to that comment but she was definitely not about to give up a chance to kill the snakehead that had seemed so determined to make her his queen. Who did the guy think he is? Oh yeah, he thought he was a _God_.

"Alright then Lieutenant," Jack said, frowning with some uncertainty towards this comment, "but that's only if you get to him first." He glanced at his watch, taking note of how much time they had left before the twenty-four hour window Robards had given them would expire. "And we better hurry up, since we've only got five hours left."

Katelyn smiled.

"I'm going to make sure I get to him first," she said, "and that means none of you guys should get in my way. I'm already pissed off enough as it is."

With this closing statement the group headed off to collect the necessary suits from the several dead Jaffa nearby. Getting into such suits was a fairly tricky process, although Teal'c was there to guide them through it. Katelyn could tell that such outfits were not built for women but it seemed there would be enough room for her within, just as long as she squeezed herself in. The whole team would certainly be facing a new experience since never before had they all dressed up as the enemy in order to infiltrate the enemy ranks.


	31. Suspicious Jaffa

**Chapter Twenty-nine: Suspicious Jaffa**

**Location: **P5H-734

_No wonder these guys are always so angry,_ Katelyn thought as she walked near the lead of their group, _their armour's smelly and you can barely move in it._

There were five of Khnum's personal bodyguard clomping along a dirt path that lead to the clearing at the base of the mountain, each carrying a staff weapon and trying to look as normal as possible. In fact these five Jaffa was SG-1, disguised as the enemy in order to heighten their chances of getting aboard Khnum's ship. It was a risky move, considering that only two of them had a grasp of the language that the Jaffa spoke and only one of those two was fluent. Thus, they would let Teal'c lead their group along and do whatever talking was necessary until they were on board Khnum's ship and had secured the stargate. Once they had done that their plans became a bit vaguer, ending in the realm of "shoot first and ask questions later". No doubt the ship would be crawling with enemy Jaffa and once the shooting started it probably wouldn't let up for quite a while.

Katelyn had managed a glance at her digital watch prior to donning the suit of smelly Jaffa armour, finding that they had had only four hours until Robards had promised he would detonate the nuke remotely through the stargate's wormhole regardless of their progress in the mission. Now they probably only had little under two hours left since it had taken them a fair while to get through the rainforest to the clearing at the base of the mountain and they still had some distance to go.

Inside the helmet that she was wearing to go with the armour, she was treated to a sort of simplified HUD system that was displaying all sorts of information about her surroundings in the Goa'uld language. Such information was useless to her since she couldn't read it and it was also sort of distracting. She had decided to remove the helmet once their cover had been blown, seeing as she was only wearing it to hide her true identity.

Ahead, at the front of the group, was Teal'c and he was also donning the suit of armour of Khnum's personal bodyguard, as was everybody else in the team. He led them casually past a few Jaffa patrols as they made their way into the clearing, stopping at the edge of it to survey their surroundings. There were plenty of Khnum's Jaffa wandering around and there were several temporary buildings that had been set up to accommodate his forces. Ahead was the entrance into the mountain base, now guarded by Jaffa as they moved supplies in and out of the facility.

"The ring transporter is inside," Teal'c said, reminding them all of their quickest route onto the ship, "that is the most ideal way of getting on board Khnum's ship."

"You know, I never thought it would come to this," Jack said, sounding a little displeased at their situation, "dressing up as Jaffa to get past the enemy. It's certainly a new experience, one that we'll probably all remember for years to come…"

Teal'c started into the clearing, the team following closely (but not too close). The cover story they had decided upon if any of Khnum's proper Jaffa asked them questions was that they were survivors from the attack on the procession, returning to base to receive orders. It was a logical cover story and one that would sound believable to Khnum's real Jaffa if they ever got suspicious. All it had to do was last them until they were on board the ship.

Katelyn was looking forward to killing a Goa'uld System Lord, seeing as not many other people got a chance to do something like that. She was especially looking forward to silencing the cocky Khnum who had seemed adamant to make her his "queen" when they had first met. Katelyn was trying to think of how she would finally finish him off when she found him, thinking that a few staff weapon blasts would do it unless he turned on his pesky force field. If that happened she would probably just try and beat him up.

The group made their way to the entrance of the tunnel, barely receiving any passing glances from the other, proper Jaffa standing guard nearby. It seemed their disguises were working, a fact that would work well in their favour until they got on board the ship.

The group started their way down the tunnel, finding that the bodies of several of Roland Halverson's synthetic soldiers had been moved to one side, probably in order to be set up for research. No doubt that Khnum would be interested in whatever technology those synthetic soldiers contained. They would have to make sure that Khnum never learnt anything from this future technology in order to keep the timeline as it was, unless it had already been stuffed up beyond repair by Roland's visit to the past.

The group arrived at where the ring transporter operated just as a group of Jaffa beamed in from the ship, the ring descending out of the ceiling and teleporting in about three of Khnum's Jaffa. It wouldn't be hard to simply stand there and await the rings, since the ring transporters were capable of simultaneously beaming in one group at one end and anther at the other end. This was a design perk the team would take advantage of, milling towards the marked area on the floor and standing to wait as the recently arrived Jaffa wandered past them.

They didn't need to wait long. The rings descended and Katelyn was overcome with a now familiar tingling sensation as her vision was filled with white. She and the rest of the team rematerialized in a room on Khnum's ship and as the rings descended, a familiar Jaffa wearing a golden bull horn emblem on his forehead approached them.

The room seemed to be a cargo hold of sorts, filled with large metal containers while about three other un-helmeted Jaffa stood guard at the end of the room, near the door.

Teal'c stepped off of the transporter section, as did the rest of the team. Khnum's First Prime examined them with a rather annoyed expression, as if he hadn't been expecting some more Jaffa to arrive. He probably hadn't, implying that maybe things were more organized here than had been first predicted.

The First Prime asked a question in his native language, only for Teal'c to confidently reply back. Perturbed, the First Prime continued, his voice edged with noticeable doubt of whatever it was Teal'c was claiming. Katelyn had to fight the urge to simply shoot the bastard, telling herself that now wasn't the best opportunity.

There was a brief silence as the First Prime thought over whatever it was Teal'c had told him. He looked at each of the helmeted Jaffa before stepping over to the nearest other one aside from Teal'c, which just happened to be Katelyn. He looked into the red eyes of her helmet before asking a question in his native language.

Katelyn glanced over at Teal'c, who had been about to interject when the Lieutenant changed her mind. She didn't need his help and besides, they were on board the ship. Why did they have to keep up this charade any longer?

Without hesitation Katelyn flicked the switch at the base of her helmet, the front sliding back and revealing her identity to the First Prime. The First Prime looked aghast for a moment and was about to shout something at the three other Jaffa standing guard when Katelyn brought up her staff weapon and blasted him at point blank, the blast going straight through him and slamming into the wall ahead. Surprised, the First Prime of Khnum stumbled backwards before crumpling into a heap on the floor, a look of absolute surprise on his face.

Immediately the team scattered as the other three Jaffa turned their attention towards the intruders. Katelyn tore off the helmet and threw it aside, relieved to be out of its claustrophobia-inducing contains. The rest of the team followed suit, effectively ending their charade as Khnum's bodyguard.

Katelyn blasted down one of the other Jaffa with her staff weapon whilst diving behind one of the metal containers. The rest of the team opened fire, shooting down the last two Jaffa moments before the door behind the now dead enemy warriors opened. Behind it was another four Jaffa warriors, obviously coming in to investigate the cause of the weapons fire.

It didn't take much to simply blast down these four enemy warriors, taking them completely by surprise. When the smoke over the corpses settled the team grouped by the centre of the cargo hold, attempting to get some idea of what part of the ship they were in.

Katelyn was catching her breath after the brief firefight, somewhat pleased with the performance of the staff weapon she had used. The weapon was intimidating and powerful but difficult to aim and near impossible to conceal, hence the reason they weren't given to SG teams as standard-issue. She managed a glance towards the door but didn't see anybody else coming, a good sign that they were yet to have the whole lot of Khnum's Jaffa after them.

"So, where's the stargate?" Jack asked bluntly, looking around the cargo hold, "I was thinking it would be in a room sort of like this…"

"It would most likely be in the main cargo hold," Teal'c replied, "this room appears to be only a subsidiary one. The main cargo hold will be nearby…"

"Good," Jack replied, pausing for a moment as he thought things through, "I was getting sick of all this walking."

"What about Khnum?" Katelyn asked, realizing that they were all forgetting about the other reason they had come here, "we can't just leave him alive…"

The others seemed to think about this for a moment, each of them with a slightly differing opinion on what to do with Khnum. Katelyn had a good idea of what she would do with him but she didn't know about the others.

Jack looked at Teal'c with the obvious intention of seeing what the big Jaffa had to say.

"Well, Teal'c, what do you think we should do?" Jack asked, "System Lords aren't exactly my speciality. Is Khnum really worth the time to go and get rid of?"  
Teal'c thought about this, doing his best to see whether or not the risks outweighed the rewards or vice versa.

"He has access to the future technology that Roland Halverson brought with him," Teal'c said, "if we allow him to reverse-engineer it, the results may be disastrous for our cause. If he works out a way to mass manufacture synthetic soldiers like Roland Halverson he will be able to create a force to rival all other System Lords…"

"So in other words we should kill him, just to make sure this doesn't happen?" Jack asked, nodding, "I see the logic in that. I just don't know whether fighting through hordes of Jaffa to get to him is a good idea…"

There was a brief silence, broken only by the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside. It sounded like more enemy Jaffa were on their way which probably meant they knew they had been infiltrated.

"Alright," Jack said, coming to a decision, "we'll get to the main cargo hold first and secure the stargate. After that, Daniel and Teal'c will keep guard while myself, Carter and the Lieutenant will head off to find Khnum. Sound like a good plan?"

Nobody had really come up with anything better so the rest of them simply agreed. Katelyn went towards the door; able to hear the marching footsteps of approaching Jaffa grow in volume as the enemy neared. She readied her staff weapon as did the others, the Lieutenant leaning around the side of the door and peering down the corridor outside. A pair of helmeted Jaffa were marching down the corridor towards them.

Katelyn took careful aim, blasting both with her staff weapon in quick succession. Both Jaffa stumbled backwards before falling to the floor, their chests smoking where the blasts had connected with them. Seeing that the way was now clear she started into the corridor, Teal'c and the others following suit.

Teal'c seemed to know where he was going and so the team followed him, occasionally ducking into alcoves to avoid passing enemy Jaffa. The team did find their way to the main cargo hold, Teal'c finding a switch in the wall which opened the doors. Behind them was a large room filled with metal containers while at the end rested the stargate, having been placed behind its own short set of steps. The DHD was to the right of the cargo hold, two enemy Jaffa standing near it. Another three Jaffa were scattered throughout the cargo bay and all five enemies immediately opened fire at the five intruders that entered into the cargo bay through the main door.

The team scattered, Katelyn rolling behind a container as a few energy blasts exploded on the floor near her. She leaned from around the container, blasting one of the Jaffa before a blast slammed into the container near her head, inclining her to duck back behind it.

Teal'c blasted two of the Jaffa as he made his way behind a nearby container, the remaining two Jaffa going for cover at the other end of the rom. Jack shot both as they ran, allowing the team to gather their senses as they made their way to the stargate.

Jack looked around, stepping over the body of a fallen Jaffa as he decided on what they would do next. He turned to the rest of the team, frowning as he thought over their hastily constructed plans.

"Well, this is fun," he commented, "running around and shooting bad guys…Never gets old…" He paused, thinking for a moment. "Daniel, Teal'c: stay here and guard the gate. The Captain, Lieutenant and myself will go and find Khnum. Make sure you're ready to leave at a moment's notice…I have a feeling we'll be just shaving by an escape…"

He pulled back an armour plate at his left wrist and glanced at his digital watch which he wore underneath. He shook his head, dissatisfied with what he saw.

"We've only got an hour before Robards decides to open the gate and remotely arm the nuke," Jack said, "and that nuke just happens to be on this ship."

"So we have an hour to find and kill Khnum?" Katelyn asked. An hour didn't seem like a long time but it would be if all they were going to do was find him, kill him and head back here.

"Yeah, pretty much," Jack said, "which means there's no use in wasting time by standing around here and talking about what we're going to do. We're going to have to actually go out and do it…Difficult to believe, yes, I know…"

He started to the door, Katelyn and Carter following as the three headed out into the corridor. They weren't too sure on where they would go but it seemed safe to assume that heading further to the centre of the pyramid structure of the ship would be their best bet. Since they were already inside the pyramid structure they wouldn't have far to go.

Jack took a moment to work out which way was probably the right way and once they started moving they didn't stop, sneaking by Jaffa patrols where necessary as they neared the central hub of the mother-ship. The Jaffa patrols became understandably more frequent but the corridors began to look more familiar, the group passing by the room which had contained the nuke and the tank containing the Goa'uld symbiote.

Up ahead they almost bumped into a trio of Jaffa heading in their direction and immediately a fight broke out. Jack used the butt-end of his staff weapon as a club as he slammed it into the stomach of one of the Jaffa, twirling it about in his grip and blasting the same Jaffa as he stumbled backwards from the force of Jack's previous blow. Carter blasted one of the other Jaffa while Katelyn ducked as the one she was taking on fired, the shot shooting over her head by mere inches.

Katelyn fired and sent the Jaffa flying backwards from the closeness of the shot, this particular Jaffa slamming into the wall behind him. Carter blasted the last Jaffa and the trio of intruders continued through the corridor, arriving at what was undoubtedly the main control room and Khnum's personal hideaway.

Inside was the sarcophagus, the very one that had resurrected Katelyn the night before. Without any hesitation the Lieutenant raised her staff weapon and blasted the sarcophagus, bolts of energy flowing across the device as it sizzled and sparked. The top slid open and a rather annoyed looking Khnum sat up, his rest disturbed. It took him a moment to realize his sarcophagus was ruined and that there were three intruders in his personal sanctum.

"Guards!" He shouted, climbing out of the sarcophagus hurriedly, "Guards!"

"They're dead," Katelyn replied bluntly, firing her staff weapon. Unsurprisingly, Khnum's personal shield flared into life and effectively absorbed the blast that had been intended to hit him. Khnum turned around in response to getting fired on, raising his left hand which wore the ribbon device. Without much effort he send forth a wave of pulsating energy that rippled through the air and knocked the three intruders away, leaving them stunned momentarily. This gave Khnum the chance to race out of the room and start down the hallway as a trio of enemy Jaffa came running into the room.

Katelyn was the first to get up, determined to find and kill Khnum. She wasn't about to let him escape again and so she picked up her dropped staff weapon and ruthlessly blasted the Jaffa that came charging into the rom. With them out of the way she started out into the corridor, catching a glimpse of Khnum down one end as he started running away.

Jack and Carter were soon up and following the Lieutenant as they pursued the escaping System Lord.

Soon enough they had followed him into the room which contained the nuke and the symbiote tank, as well as several other containers. Khnum began to push aside a few of the containers, revealing a ring-shaped hatch in the floor which was definitely the entrance point for a ring transporter. It was probably his own escape route, taking him either down onto the surface or into a hangar of some kind. Either way it would mean he had escaped once again, so without much thought Katelyn came charging into the room and raced for the System Lord. She knew his shield wouldn't stop a slow-moving target like herself, her assumption proving correct as she slammed into him and tackled him to the floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, the stargate in the main cargo hold suddenly activated. Daniel and Teal'c stood at the ready, awaiting the arrival of enemy soldier but both of them were suitably surprised when nothing came out of the wormhole. Instead, it shutdown after a few seconds without anyone arriving through it. This was more than enough to prove that Robards had just armed the nuke remotely, a fact that was not lost on Daniel and Teal'c as they began dialling for Earth. They would keep the stargate active and wait for as long as they could but they both knew that if they were here when the nuke detonated then nothing would really matter anymore.

* * *

Jack raced into the room as Katelyn sent Khnum onto the floor, the Lieutenant beginning to punch the Goa'uld System Lord repeatedly in the face. However, this wasn't what caught his attention: it was the digital timer on the nuke over in the corner that got his attention. He raced over to it, taking one look at it before he swore very loudly.

"We ain't got time for this!" He shouted, looking towards Katelyn as she punched Khnum again and again. Suddenly the System Lord reacted, raising his ribbon device and sending Katelyn flying right off of him. She came crashing painfully onto the floor at the other end of the room, winded but still very much alive.

Carter raced inside, only for Khnum to send her flying back against the wall with a quick wave launched from his ribbon device. Jack realized he was the only one left to react and so raised his staff weapon, firing again and again as Khnum started making his way back to the ring transporter pad. The shots had little effect on his personal shield and Khnum managed smile on his bloodied face as he stepped onto the transporter pad.

Jack shook his head in frustration before lunging for Khnum, knocking him clear off the ring transporter pad as the rings themselves ascended. They came up and teleported nothing before shooting back down into the floor, Jack and Khnum sliding across the smooth floor before hitting the wall beneath the symbiote tank.

The symbiote tank fell out of its housing as the pair hit the wall, smashing on the floor. Jack ignored it as water splashed all over him and Khnum, instead the Colonel concentrated on the enemy before him. Standing up, Jack kicked the System Lord in the ribs before reaching down and tearing the ribbon device off of Khnum's left hand. With no use for it Jack threw it aside before picking up his fallen staff weapon, bringing it to bear and pointing it squarely at Khnum's bloodied and battered face. The ribbon device had been what had controlled Khnum's shield and without it Khnum was defenceless.

Over in the corner the digital timer on the nuke ticked down to ten minutes, enough of an excuse to quickly wrap things up here before heading back to the cargo hold where the stargate was.

"See you later, Khnom," Jack said.

"It's _Khnum_, you insolent fool—"

Jack fired and then turned away from the smoking, partially headless corpse. He watched as Katelyn walked over and surveyed his work on the dead System Lord, nodding her head in an approving manner.

"We showed him," she said.

Jack was about to reply in agreement when he saw something slide into view on Katelyn's shoulder. It was long, green and snake-like: definitely not something you would want to keep as a pet. Katelyn hadn't seemed to notice it but Jack did, taking a second to realize what it was. The damn thing must have snuck away during the fight…  
"Lieutenant, don't move…"

Jack was about to grab it when the Goa'uld symbiote hissed at him, seconds before it reared back on Katelyn's shoulder and plunged into the side of her neck. The Lieutenant screamed and fell to the floor, her scream ending as quickly as it had began.

Jack looked down at her, instinctively raising his staff weapon. Katelyn was motionless, lying on the floor with her eyes closed. He managed a glimpse back at the nuke and the timer, seeing that they only had eight minutes before its impending detonation.

Carter walked over, unsure of what was going on.

"What happened?" She asked, looking down at the unconscious Katelyn, "is she alright?"

Jack was about to reply when Katelyn's eyes snapped open. There was a pleading look in them as she realized what had happened. She was losing control and didn't have long…

"Don't let it, Jack…" She gasped, struggling to form words as the parasite inside her attempted to exert its control. "Kill me…Please…"  
Jack was about to reply when the Lieutenant's gasps subsided and her eyes glowed brightly. Jack instinctively fired, only for his aim to be knocked off track as the Lieutenant grabbed his leg and pulled it from underneath him with surprising force. The shot slammed into the floor near the Lieutenant's head harmlessly.

Jack struggled free of the Lieutenant's grip, realizing that now was probably a good chance to leave. He stood up and started for the exit, Carter following as it occurred to her what had happened. Katelyn had stood up now and was casually walking over to where Khnum's ribbon device lay, picking it up and sliding it onto her left hand.

"We're leaving her?" Carter asked, sounding a little concerned, "we can help her…"  
"We don't have time for that," Jack shouted in response as he and Carter ran out into the corridor, "we just have to get out of here before that nuke goes off."

Jack and Carter kept running through the corridors, back the way they had come. Jack knew there was no helping Katelyn, especially when they had less than ten minutes to get back to the cargo hold. It wasn't that far to go but Jack didn't think they could afford to take their time.

A few minutes passed before the pair found their way back to the cargo hold. Daniel and Teal'c watched as the pair ran in, lacking a certain team member.

"Where's the Lieutenant?" Daniel asked.

"Forget her," Jack said, "she's gone." He glanced past them at the activated stargate, assuming that they had already dialled for Earth.

"Are we ready to go?" He asked. Teal'c nodded while Daniel took out his GDO and quickly punched in the iris code.

With only slight regret Jack O'Neill jogged into the wormhole, followed by Carter, Daniel and Teal'c. They all knew that this whole region would be devastated when the nuke detonated but perhaps it was for the best, especially if it meant it would kill the Goa'uld that possessed Katelyn. She knew far too much about Earth and its defences, which made her more of a threat than any of the other System Lords.

* * *

**A/N:** Alas, this is the end. When it comes to endings, I can never make myself satisfied with the ones I write. This story leaves so many unexplained things and yet I doubt I'll write a sequel anytime soon. The ending itself is deliberately ambiguous: Will the nuke go off or not? Will Katelyn survive? Such an ending reminds me of how that episode "Revelations" ended Season Five: no cliff-hanger, just…a finish.

Roland Halverson, the main bad guy, has a fairly understandable motive (one I never quite explained). To those of you who have played _F.E.A.R: First Encounter Assault Recon_, the main bad guy, Paxton Fettel, was a heavy inspiration on the character of Roland. And the whole "creating fire with the mind" thing I nabbed from an episode of _The X-Files_.

I'm not happy with the ending but I don't know how else to end it. Oh well.


End file.
